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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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http://www.archive.org/details/bookofpsychicsoc01shaf 



BOOK OF THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

A STUDY OF THE FOURTEEN 

UNSEEN POWERS 

THAT CONTROL HUMAN LIFE 



AND CONTAINING 



IMMORTALITY 

A 

SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION 

OF 

LIFE AFTER DEATH 



BY 

EDMUND SHAFTESBURY 



ISSUED BY 

RALSTON UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

igo8 



-b^: 






ingressI 
NOV 1 1908 

Copyritrnt Entry 
CLASS CL XXc, No, 



C 



II 



Copyright 1908 

BY 

RALSTON UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved 



Befcieatiom 



To the hundreds of men and women who 
have pursued the study of Shaftesbury philos- 
ophy, the thousands who have ascended the 
heights by the aid of Universal Magnetism, and 
the hundreds of thousands who are now engaged 
in the lesser courses of training along these 
lines, this new work is 

Hffecttonatety BeMcatefc, 



<!;.ivlvlvr. I -Ivlvl.lvlvlv Ivlvlvli/Mvlvivlvli/IVKI /lv<vlvlvlv<vlvlVlvlvlvlvlVIVlVIVh 

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE 

I TO THE SECOND EDITION 

■ ivivi.i.i.i^.i.i.i.i.i-i.i.ivi.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.iTi" iTtTi ,-,- 



/Ivlv t /IVI vlvlvJvtvl 




O many requests were made for a book entirely- 
written by Shaftesbury, in the event that the 
present work should ever pass to a second edi- 
tion, that the publishers have decided to com- 
ply with the wishes of these patrons. 

While the laws and principles have not 
changed and the conclusions are identical with 
those of the first edition, the work now has a plan in its 
structure that is most pleasing to the mind that seeks in- 
formation on the greatest theme of human life. It is not 
a broken and disconnected arrangement of facts and proofs; 
but a well-woven fabric of law and truth, convincing at 
every step, and satisfying to every person of intelligence. 

The title employed in the first issue was " The Book of 
the Psychic Society, a Study of the Unseen Powers that 
Surround Human Life." For the sake of brevity this has 
been changed to " Unseen Powers," but is still the founda- 
tion book of admission to the higher studies known as the 
Psychic Society. Owners of this work are known as Sub- 
scribers. 

The remarkable thoughts set forth in this book, deep and 
far-reaching as most of them are, have been framed in the 
most popular language in order that they may be more 
readily grasped by every grade of intelligence. No at- 
tempt has been made at technical statement, as it is sure to 
weaken the usefulness of so important a study. 



THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY. 

By far the most important study of an intelligent age is 
the nature of life. Nothing can approach it in value or 
interest. In the past centuries, great works have appeared 
that presented philosophies of many kinds bearing on the 
subject, but that were the deductions of faulty theories. 
The yearnings of humanity for hope and promise of im- 
mortality have in every age tempted the greatest minds to 
build up systems that seemed most probable in the light of 
what knowledge was to be had at the time. 

Until recent years it was not supposed that the intelli- 
gent powers of man were divided into two realms; one the 
outcome of physical existence and subject to physical laws; 
the other far more mysterious and wonderful because of its 
freedom from all physical uses or control. 

What is called proof of the existence of a psychic life in 
man had its start in the discovery that there is a psychic 
mind at work in every person. This is now so well estab- 
lished that it is never discussed as a doubtful proposition. 
Psychology is taught wherever there is university training. 
Books and even libraries exist on the subject. Societies for 
psychological research are found in every civilized country. 

Through the knowledge of the psychic mind, we reach 
proofs of the existence of the psychic body. 

This step is one of the most recent in the progress made 
along the lines of certainty. But next comes the proof that 
psychic mind and life are not subject to physical laws, and 
therefore know no death. 

The volume which is now open before us, presents the 
latest information on these great questions. But new light 
is all the time rising over the horizon of mystery, and 
knowledge spreads its wings for a loftier flight. 

To keep pace with the onward march of discovery, and 



THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY <j 

to avoid the expenditure of hundreds of dollars for works 
that may have little recent information, the plan known as 
the Psychic Society has been adopted, the purpose of which 
is to cover the whole field of fact and study of these im- 
portant themes, so that every earnest reader may be given 
the advantage of the most recent knowledge on the subject 
at hand. 

This arrangement has been in use for nearly twenty 
years, as may be seen by reference to the older books in 
this series. This was more thoroughly organized under the 
methods explained in chapters 62 and 63 of the first sec- 
tion of the Psychic Society, the latest edition of which was 
published in 1896. That work is still in circulation, al- 
though the form of organization has been improved by what 
is known as the present Psychic Society. 

The volume now in its second edition, which is the 
foundation work of the Psychic Society of to-day, admits 
any person to the higher studies on payment of the required 
fees, which are small compared with the advantages offered. 
No one work can contain all the light that is demanded. 
But whole libraries are not necessary. One man who was 
determined to secure all the facts obtainable on psychic 
phenomena, spent over one thousand dollars for books, be- 
sides months upon months of hard reading without one per 
cent, of the information that can be furnished by the Psychic 
Society. 



PLAN. 

1. The universe is all physical; or it is part physical and 
part something else. 

2. As the proofs are abundant that something besides 
the physical exists, that which is not physical is necessarily 
psychic. 

3. A human being is born of earth and his five senses 
are built of earth, being developed by his contact with 
earthly experiences. 

4. He has only his five senses with which to acquire 
knowledge, unless he is able to derive information from 
some other source. 

5. As no other source exists outside the physical except 
the psychic, it is necessary for man to search within the 
latter in order to know more than his physical senses can 
teach him. 

6. The conditions that hold unseen sway over each 
human life, are all psychic, for the reason that they are 
not physical. 

7. Any attempt to secure knowledge of such conditions 
by the aid of the physical senses will always lead to mys- 
tery, error and superstition. 

8. If knowledge cannot be obtained by the aid of psychic 
agencies, then it will never come, as far as such conditions 
are concerned. 

9. Conclusive proof having been secured that the psychic 
senses occasionally break through the physical senses, much 
valuable information is now at hand from this source. 

10. All other methods of information are confined wholly 
within the realm of the psychic world. 

11. It therefore follows that there are two divisions to 
the study of the unseen powers that surround human life; 
one is devoted to a consideration of proofs furnished by 
physical glimpses, and the other the direct evidence fur- 
nished by psychic processes. 



FIRST GRAND DIVISION 

OF 

UNSEEN POWERS 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF THE 

PROOFS FURNISHED BY THE 
PHYSICAL SENSES 



10 



SOURCES OF HELP. 

Owing to the immense scope of the present work, it is 
not possible to follow out all the details of proof and dem- 
onstration necessary to sustain each law and principle; for 
hundreds of pages would be consumed in so doing. , All 
persons who w r ish to be advised where to go for these addi- 
tional sources of help, are referred to the following studies : 

First Section: — Physical Telepathy. — This deals 
with all the functions of the physical brain in its uses apart 
from the avenues of the ordinary senses. 

Second Section: — Physical Magnetism. — This is the 
opposite of hypnotism; and, as every mind is more or less 
depressed by the influences of circumstances as well as the 
forces employed through the energies of other people, it is 
necessary that a positive condition of magnetism should be 
developed in each individual who wishes to go beyond this 
volume in the study of the grand themes of universal life. 

Third Section : — Advanced Magnetism. — This is a 
private system of developing with the most remarkable re- 
sults the super-sensitive functions of the mind and nervous 
centers in normal directions, based on the strange powers 
referred to in chapters two, three, four, seven, eight and 
others of the present book. 

Fourth Section: — Universal Magnetism. — This is 
the only work that teaches the principles and methods of 
psychic control between individuals and powers; covering 
not only the realm of this planet, but including all that is 
now possible to know of the influences that prevail through- 
out the entire universe. It is a book of psychic powers, not 
telepathic knowledge. 

These Sections and all subsequent editions are free to 
progressive members of the Great Psychic Society, which is 
described in the final pages of this book. 



II 




CHAPTER I. 



I BEGINNING TO THINK. 1 

I k 

/f\/i\/fS?IV< -l,l.l»l,l,l.l.lvl,lvlVI,l.|..KI,lvl.l.l»l.l-l,i,lvkl. ~~ l~l~l ~,~t~l~t\?fc 



LL persons who think beyond the five senses, 
soon come to agree on certain facts that are 
the primer of philosophy. As the trend of 
their thoughts is always the same, and the 
conclusions reached are always identical, let 
us at this place look at them, as though we 
were to review the first emotions of the mind. 

1. Man looks at his body, and notes that it is vulnerable. 
It is unstable. Its living activities constitute life; its dead 
activities constitute a return to the dust of earth. 

2. Man's body is born, it grows, develops, ripens and 
dies; and there is no power within the range of his knowl- 
edge that can stay this process. 

3. The first question that arises in the mind is whence 
came man? As far as his physical existence is concerned, 
it is known that man is made of earth. He began in a 
tiny cell of protoplasm, composed chiefly of four elements 
of earth, and grew by adding to that cell the substance 
of earth. There is nothing in his physical nature but earth. 

4. The next question that arises in the mind, is where 
man goes. As far as his physical existence is concerned, it 
is known that he returns to the same earth that furnished 
his body. It goes to no other planet. All that is in the 
body of man mingles with the dust and may be found again 
by the chemist. 

5. Naturally now the mind turns to the lower forms 
of life and is about to conclude that man is only a higher 
animal. But closer thinking finds a wide gulf separating 



12 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the human species from the higher beasts; yet as the differ- 
ence is chief!}' one of intelligence the belief comes strong 
that man is only an animal of high intelligence. Facts soon 
disprove this conclusion. 

6. In the species below man all intelligence is based on 
the uses of the five senses, the instinctive requirements of 
self-protection and the desire for companionship which ex- 
plains every trait of the animal mind that seems to indicate 
a psychic nature. 

7. If man did not possess other traits than those involved 
in the highly intelligent employment of the five senses, the 
demands of selfishness, power, self-protection, companionship 
and the uses of life, it might be believed that he is only a 
higher form of animal. But he possesses vastly more than 
these traits. 

8. Off-hand conclusions are not valuable. An assumed 
fact should be examined long and well ; and studied from 
every point of view; until the truth is seen clearly. In 
these brief paragraphs we have not space to carry on this 
process; but the fact is agreed to by all persons who have 
reached the only conclusion possible, that the human mind 
is separated from that of all other species, by the one great 
fact of its sub-divisions into the physical and psychic worlds. 

9. Nothing is easier to prove than the separate existence 
of a physical mind and a psychic mind in every human being. 
The evidence is of such a nature that it does not admit of 
any doubt. 

10. It being a proved fact that man possesses something 
that does not belong to the lower species, the next inquiry 
is, whence comes it? The physical body is made from the 
earth and returns to it. The animal, therefore, finds its 
ultimate fate in the death of its body. That which is more 
than animal in man is psychic; and it is natural to ask some- 
thing about its origin. 

11. The questioner, having exhausted the earth as a 
source of life, now looks off to other worlds. It is known 



BEGINNING TO THINK 13 

that, if the sun were to be withdrawn for a day, every living 
thing on this globe would die. The densest clouds cannot 
shut out one per cent, of the power of the sun ; but an hour's 
eclipse sends a chill over the earth even in the hottest day 
of summer. 

12. It is known that all vitality, all energy, all electrical 
life, all magnetism, all colors, all flowers, all fragrance, all 
the miracles of growth in spring, all buoyancy of spirits, 
all elasticity of thought and the essence of existence come 
from the power that passes out of the sun into this orb on 
which we dwell. Without the sun, colors die; without the 
sun, flowers cease ; without the sun, the sight fails ; without 
the sun, sound is a dead sea; without the sun, there can be 
no music, for harmony perishes in a lifeless atmosphere; 
without the sun, the earth cannot be transformed into food ; 
without the sun, we cannot see our loved ones; without 
the sun, we cannot think, feel, love, hope or look ahead. 

13. The greatest of modern inventors, Edison, says he does 
not know what electricity is. It is not a chemical element. 
It is not a physical substance. It is not a force like gravity, 
the most common of the unsolved mysteries of the universe. 
But electricity exists. Not being physical it is the psychic 
nature of the globe. But it is furnished daily by the sun. 
It has been well stated that, if the sun were to be withdrawn 
from the earth, all electricity would cease, and gravity would 
be destroyed. It is agreed that electricity comes from the 
sun in daily supplies. It is supposed that gravity is also a 
gift from the sun, inasmuch as the planets are all held fast 
to the solar center by a power that is not physical. An 
influence that can pass out through space for a distance of 
two thousand million miles and hold a world chained to the 
sun, must arrest our thoughts for a while if we are disposed 
to think deep enough. 

14. As man possesses so many attributes that cannot be 
derived from the earth, but that are gifts from the sun, the 
mind now turns to the source whence the sun receives its 



i 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

wonderful powers. Is it an agent or a creating source? 
All the orbs that twinkle are supposed to be suns, each 
having worlds held to its system by the mysterious power 
of gravity. But the orbs that reflect borrowed light are 
the planets of our own solar system. As planets are held 
to their governing power, so the suns may hold allegiance 
to a central court of the sky. No astronomer for a moment 
believes that each sun is independent of some government 
greater than itself. 

15. On a clear night a large telescope reveals a vapor 
of sun-dust out of which new suns and new solar systems 
are at this very time passing through the first stages of 
world-formation. Suns are being born that have not as 
yet any planets or offspring. Sit down and view this mag- 
nificent spectacle in the sky, and think about it; think deeply 
and think long; and see where your thoughts will carry 
you. It is very evident that the process of this new-world 
growth will be taking place billions of years from now; 
that suns and planets will be born, grow, ripen and die; 
to be resolved into the funds from which they sprang, only 
to be made anew in some subsequent era. There is evidence 
of dead orbs now. Others are dying. The conclusion seems 
clear that some central power in the heavens is directing 
every movement of the universe. 

16. Physical man is born and dies; the physical mind is 
born and dies sooner or later after it leaves the body ; worlds 
are born and die; worlds are physical; all that is physical 
is born and dies; and this is change. It is mutability. It 
is mortality. There is a community of interest between the 
physical body, the physical mind, the earth and the physical 
worlds that abound in space. 

17. Is there anything that is not physical? Gravity is 
not a substance, nor a part of anything physical. It is a 
power. In the solar system alone it is as long as the 
diameter of the system, or more than four billions of miles, 
and as wide as the cross diameter, and as high. It is as 



BEGINNING TO THINK 15 

much in the space that separates orbs as in the orbs them- 
selves. Electricity is not a substance. It is as much in 
space as in the orbs of space. Thought is not a substance. 
Magnetism is not physical. Instinct, intuition and inspira- 
tion are not substances. Governing laws, such as are found 
in the universe, are not physical. The special design of 
nature is not a substance. The miracle whereby the filth 
of the ground is transformed into food for man, or the 
compost of the garden is translated into the exquisite beauty 
of the rose, is not physical. These are common examples 
only. They are but a few of the evidences of a power that 
makes use of physical life as tools are employed to shape 
and perfect some grand temple. 

18. There are two wide worlds in this universe; the 
physical and the psychic. All that is not physical is psychic. 
Both are found everywhere. But the worlds that have died, 
such as the moon and some of the planets, cease to be reached 
by psychic influences. If this earth is solid, then only its 
shallow surface is affected by psychic powers. These are 
examples of the physical conditions that are separated from 
the psychic agencies. 

19. It then becomes apparent that what is psychic is 
alive. If this power touches the physical, the latter lives; 
just as the dead was brought to life in the olden time. The 
human corpse is all physical. The psychic has gone out 
of it. 

20. Now comes the newer law that is not always easy 
to comprehend. The purpose of the psychic is to find birth 
and development; and this purpose is being expressed on 
this globe at the present time. It is the union of life with 
substance; and then the abandonment of that substance for 
similar uses without end. Man is the goal of this union 
on this globe. Man is the only life in which the psychic 
unites with the physical earth. But what about that under- 
life that leads up to man? Here the law becomes complex. 
The human species is reached by the gradual rising up out 



16 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of the ground of the forces that make man. The stairs 
that lead to the golden dome are not the dome itself; nor 
is that under-life that makes the ladder from the soil to 
humanity the goal that it reaches. Therefore all life that 
is not man's is physical ; while man is the union of the 
psychic with the physical. Think this over. Think hard, 
and long, and deeply. You will find it true, and you will 
agree with others that it cannot be otherwise than true. 

21. It being a fact that every human being possesses a 
physical mind and a psychic mind, a physical life and a psychic 
life, and a body that is mortal, the final inquiry is, what 
becomes of the psychic life and the psychic mind that are 
known to dwell during earthly existence in the physical 
body? This question has been asked for many thousands 
of years, and is now uppermost in the minds of all thought- 
ful persons. 

22. The physical substance does not die. The body 
perishes as a body, but not one particle of its substance is 
lost. It dissolves and takes part in making other bodies. 
But as a being it is lost. Its physical mind lingers after 
death, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and possibly 
years; but eventually dissolves, and is lost; because it was 
the tool of the senses only. 

23. The psychic mind and the psychic life within the 
body are not made of physical substance. They came from 
the source of life. They are life itself in the only true 
sense of the word. The mortal perishes because it loses its 
identity through change, although it is in fact imperishable. 
Yet while it served as the temple of the psychic life within 
it, it suffered immensely from the moment of birth to the 
last hour of its existence. This mortal body was sick, was 
paralyzed, was unconscious, was asleep, was in a faint, was 
broken with misery and racked with pain; was subject to 
attack from without and from within, from invisible enemies 
and open assailants; and has not had the semblance of power 
to resist these hidden and manifest foes. The physical mind 



BEGINNING TO THINK 17 

slept at night, was dulled with age, was wild with grief, 
lost its sanity, was imbecile, and gave way to influences that 
controlled it ; as frail as the physical body in which it dwelt. 
24. The psychic body and the psychic mind never sleep, 
never lose consciousness, are never sick, and are not made of 
perishable material. Enough has been learned of them to 
know that they are not born of earth, are not made of 
earth, and answer to no earthly law. When this much is 
established, the inference is plain that psychic life and its 
mind are immortal. But we shall see. 



This opening chapter may be omitted if the reader shall 
find it wearying. 

It is the beginning of thinking. Yet it starts with the 
first and simplest of all thoughts on life; and, step by step, 
it passes on into the deepest of all problems in the universe. 
Just at that point where the reader finds the depth becoming 
too great, he may pause and close the chapter. 

Easier propositions are now to follow for a while. 



i8 



CHAPTER II 




| DIFFICULTIES OF PROOF. | 



.RUTH is the goal of all study, all thought, 
'all investigation. But who has the truth? 
What is it, and how can it be recognized when 
(found? If a man tells you something that 
you are willing to accept as a fact, you incur 
two risks of being mistaken. He may have 
told you a deliberate falsehood ; or he may have 
told you something that he honestly thinks is true, but about 
which he is mistaken. Then there is a third class of error, 
and it is that which some theorist has built up around a 
system that he fondly wishes to be true. 

Let us take the class of statements and beliefs that seem 
most reliable. They are founded on the direct experiences 
and proofs of the senses. Certainly they ought to be true 
if anything in this world can be accepted as fact. But are 
they? 

If you touch hot water you know it. If you hold a piece 
of ice in the hand, you know it is cold. If you hear sweet 
music, the sound seems certain, and no one can make you 
believe it is not music. If a voice speaks to you out of the 
nothingness of the air, you are convinced that you hear the 
voice. Even the words have a clear meaning to you. If 
you see the form of a man standing before you in the road, 
you are sure it is the form of a man. 

These are evidences of the senses; and what the senses 
reveal cannot for a moment be doubted. We asked ten 
thousand persons by personal letters if they had ever seen 



DIFFICULTIES OF PROOF 19 

or heard ghosts, or had any experiences that were so clearly 
manifested that they would be willing to swear to the 
facts; if they were convinced; and why? In the replies 
were three letters containing the following assertions: 

" I am a priest, clear of mind, and cool-headed. I cer- 
tainly know what I see. I once saw very distinctly the 
ghost of my dead brother under circumstances that admit 
of no doubt of its reality." 

" I am the wife of a physician. My sister died four years 
ago. After she had been dead three years or more, one 
night I was awakened by hearing her call to me, saying 
that my little boy must be taken to her in the spirit world 
within a month. I knew her voice, and arose, dressed 
myself and sat up alone in the room while my husband 
slept. My sister's voice again came to me and repated the 
statement. My husband awoke and found me weeping in 
my chair." 

" I am a business man, called hard of mind and lacking 
all emotion and sentiment. I lost my wife by death. For 
three months after she died, some one would come into my 
room and strip all the clothes from the bed. I employed 
a male nurse to sit in the room and watch while I slept. 
As soon as he became drowsy the bed-clothes were taken 
from the bed. We finally sewed them on and they were 
torn away." 

Now here are evidences that were brought directly to the 
three most important of the senses; sight, sound and touch. 
As the assertions were made by reliable persons, and were 
sustained by proofs, we thought it wise to undertake a 
personal investigation of the matter in each instance. The 
more we probed, the stronger became the verification of each 
case. 

The priest said, " I certainly know what I see." Thou- 
sands have said, " I have a right to believe what I see with 
my own eyes." Others say, " If I cannot believe what I 
hear with my own ears, what can I believe? " 



20 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

But sight, sound, hearing and touch are interpretations 
of the nervous system. Here is a man who is given a 
piece of ice and is told that it is a red hot coal. Instantly 
he jumps with pain and drops it. His sense of touch has 
been changed by his nervous condition. True he is in a 
state of subjection to one of the laws of hypnotism; but this 
power affects those who are awake as well as those who 
are asleep. 

Sound is the least certain of all the senses, as the slightest 
inflammation of the finest nerve in the brain where sound 
has its creation, will magnify the tiny threads of dead still- 
ness into an ocean roar in the midst of which voices are 
heard calling from far off shores. Nothing is impossible 
under such circumstances. 

In the last throes of death, the microscopic powers of the 
brain are enlarged until every conceivable noise is heard. 
Conscience plays its part, and the yells of demons, the 
shrieks of tortured souls, or the howling of the condemned 
amid the fury of flames, will accompany the dying man 
across the black river. On the other hand, the calm peace 
of the pure in heart invites the songs of angels and the sweet 
music of heaven. 

How much of these experiences may be ascribed to the 
changes taking place in the brain during the passing moments 
of death? 

Sight is likewise an interpretation of the brain. We had 
many conversations with the actor, Edwin Booth, who stood 
for a quarter of a century at the head of his profession. 
He declared that he played his parts so earnestly that they 
became real to him, and the forms of the characters in 
the play were easily seen under certain circumstances. "One 
morning I was rehearsing Macbeth alone. In the sword 
scene at the end of the play I saw Macduff on the stage. 
He loomed up so big and powerful that I hesitated about 
fighting. Presently he vanished." This was one of the 
frequent experiences of this great actor. The intensity of 



DIFFICULTIES OF PROOF 21 

his genius brought forms out of nothing to stand before him. 

Every person who has had a severe attack of grip knows 
what it is to see things that are not in fact present. The 
same is true in the fever stages of typhoid. Likewise in 
some stages of intoxication, and following the use of certain 
drugs, the mind beholds many forms that do not in fact 
exist to the normal sight. When this condition of the 
mind becomes chronic from any cause, it is one of the classes 
of dementia or insanity. 

Any very nervous man or woman, or one suffering from 
prostration, or one who is laboring under fright or fear, 
may see forms that are not present to others. So the power 
of hypnotism, the lack of natural sleep, ordinary drowsiness, 
and many other causes may conjure up visions that are as 
unreal as the cart-wheels that chase the victim of alcohol 
during a spell of delirium tremens. 

If you look with upturned eyes on a bright ball and allow 
your mind to lapse into a semi-sleep, and repeat this experi- 
ment many times, you will soon be able to view scenes and 
forms that will surprise your friends, provided you persist 
in the efforts and have a sufficiently sensitive brain. 

It is not necessary to send a person into the unconscious 
sleep of hypnotism in order to arouse the faculty of the 
brain for seeing things that the normal physical brain 
cannot perceive. Many persons have been swayed by the 
following experiment, that any one can try who is in earnest. 
The combination of night, of dark, of secrecy, of mystery 
and of absolute confidence bordering on fear, will make 
almost any human brain so sensitive that it will open up 
its highly nervous faculty of seeing forms. When analyzed 
it comes down to the same principle by which many a 
woman, left alone in a dreary house all night, surrounded 
by fearful conditions, has been made prey to the inevitable 
results of an overwrought brain; sounds, voices, knockings 
and even visions having come to her and been absolutely 
visible to her sight; every one of which was the creation 



22 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of a slightly fevered or distraught cerebrum, bordering on 
delirium. Fright, exhaustion, intense thinking on one sub- 
ject, and other common causes will project visions into the 
air or bring sounds to the brain, or even arouse the sense 
of feeling. 

How then can any man say: " I certainly have a right 
to believe what I see with my own eyes," when perfectly 
normal conditions are not always prevailing even in the 
hours of wide wakefulness? 

What is the truth? 

Who has it? 

Positive people are often unreliable people. The cheap 
assertion that something is true because proofs have come 
to the senses, is no longer tenable in the new world of 
investigation. 

The lover of knowledge will be slow to condemn the 
belief or opinion of any person ; and, on the other hand, 
the man or woman who wishes to make the greatest progress 
in the right direction will not shut up in the mind some 
fixed theory or doctrine when all the world is thirsting for 
more light than shines to-day out of the realm of the un- 
known. Let each and every one of us open the mind to 
the admission of the proof of truth, if any one has such 
proof to offer. 



23 



CHAPTER III 



I 1 

IUNRELIABLE INFORMATION.! 

I 1 



.ii.i . ii t . i 



ViVIVIvlvivlyK t . lv 4 . 4 ~ » . I . i v M.t.l. 4 - 4 v 4 . I . 4~4 , l~~\ " lTV*Ti~t~4~«Tt"74': 




UCH of the information on psychic subjects 
is unreliable. Most of it is invention. The 
Sunday papers are given to the habit of in- 
genious fabrication of ghost stories and other 
phenomena; every word of which is composed 
in the rooms of the writers, although supposed 
affidavits and other forms of proof are added 
to the statements. Many of these stories have been inves- 
tigated and not one found to have even the slightest semb- 
lance of truth. 

Daily papers also freely invent such accounts and give 
many a thrilling narrative of premonitions, warnings, dreams 
and predictions that it would seem impossible for writers 
to make them up out of whole cloth, as the saying goes. 
Proofs are added when it suits the invention of the fabri- 
cators ; but the proofs never can be verified. Yet such 
stories are converting thousands of persons to false beliefs. 
Not long ago a business man announced to his friends that 
he had changed his faith from the church to that of other 
tenets ; and it was learned that the new doctrines were based 
wholly on newspaper articles containing accounts of ghosts, 
premonitions and communications from the spirit world. 
In his library were found more than seven thousand clippings 
from the papers, all arranged and classified b3 r the aid of 
a private secretary. He denounced some of the truths which 
his friends stated to him, but consented to have the matter 
reported to us. 



24 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Instead of angering the man by an abuse of his judgment, 
we inquired how many of the newspaper articles had been 
verified by him. He replied, not one. We then suggested 
that he verify every one of the seven thousand. He began 
with the cases that had most impressed him; but when he 
found that not one of the first six hundred had any founda- 
tion in fact, he burned up the whole lot, dismissed his 
private secretary and came back to his normal church belief, 
a wiser and a happier man. 

This is but one case in a large number where seemingly 
truthful stories have turned the lives of men. and women 
in a wrong direction. 

Then there are persons who have heard of strange hap- 
penings and who vouch for them as strictly true, who in 
fact have never had any direct knowledge of the events 
reported ; although some very honest men and women have 
so long and so often vouched for things of the kind that 
they have really come to believe them true. A very excellent 
bishop told us of a most extraordinary case that he knew to 
be exactly as stated. We asked him if he had personal 
knowledge of it, and he quickly said he had. It required 
outside proof to convince him that his belief was not founded 
on personal knowledge, as he was in Europe at the time 
the supposed events occurred in America. This shows one 
phase of the weakness of strong minds. 

There are some sources of proof that cannot deceive, and 
they are five in number, as follows: 



Absolute Facts. 

Scientific Demonstration. 

Evidence of the Normal Physical Senses. 

Evidence of the Psychic Senses. 

Established Psychic Laws. 




25 



CHAPTER IV. 
I NATURE OF SOUNDS. 

7i7l~l~~~t U»l,lvl.l.l.l.lvl.lvl.l.l«l.l,I.Mvlvl,l.l,lvl/l.l.l-i.l.l.l/l ^l^lN/iX/ 

HAT IS KNOWN as sound has no existence 
in itself. It is merely a creation of the sensi- 
tive nerves of the brain. The basis of all 
sound is air. The air may be still or it may 
|£ s be moving; but still air or moving air of itself 
does not furnish the basis of sound. If you 
will imagine a mass of gelatine very long, very 
wide and very thick, resting upon a large platform; and 
also imagine that one part of this mass is struck a blow 
that vibrates the whole jelly-like mass from end to end, 
you will obtain a fair idea of the manner in which air fur- 
nishes the basis of sound. 

If the gelatine could be extended for a long distance, a 
blow struck at one end would vibrate the mass to the other 
end; in fact it might travel for miles if so large a distance 
were possible for the construction of this kind of a medium. 
But the gelatine itself does not move. It vibrates, and the 
waves of mass-motion reach as far as the mass extends. 

A wave of the ocean is a surface action. If you drop 
a pebble in still water, ripples will run out in all direc- 
tions; but the water itself will not move. A chip riding 
on its bosom would be found in the same place after the 
ripples ceased, as before they began. A body of water 
apparently quiet may be moving in one direction, and 
ripples made on its surface may be moving in the opposite 
direction; showing that the mass may sustain vibrations 
independent of the direction in which the whole body may 
be moving. 



26 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

This is true of sound in air. A strong wind may carry 
the air in one direction while the tones of the voice may be 
traveling in another, although the removal of the medium 
will also take away the vibrations of its mass. 

Water will carry the waves of sound; but they are not 
like the waves of the ocean, nor the ripples on its face; 
being merely vibrations of the mass of the water itself. 
Solid wood will also transmit sound by vibration of its 
molecules. 

Everything is hollow and porous. 

In the structure of the densest solids, the molecules that 
make up the mass are held apart by laws similar to those 
that keep the sun and planets from coming together; and a 
tiny being small enough to stand upon the surface of one 
of these particles that compose the mass, would look out 
upon the other particles somewhat as we view the moon 
and sun. Such small proportions are almost inconceivable. 

As everything is hollow and porous it is easy to under- 
stand how heat, magnetism, sound and other activities can 
pass through them. If there were such things as ghosts 
with only an ether-body, it would have no difficulty what- 
ever in moving through a solid wall. What is solid to the 
eye is exceedingly porous in fact. 

Like water, the air is a mass; the difference being that it 
is more porous. It is composed chiefly of two gases; and 
the same is true of water; the former being made up of 
nitrogen and oxygen ; while the latter consists of hydrogen 
and oxygen. 

Sound is a vibration of the molecules in any mass. We 
are most familiar with it in the atmosphere. These vibra- 
tions, coming against an electric current, as in the tele- 
phone, may be carried on wires to distant places, far beyond 
the range of the voice when employed in the air alone. 

Some authorities, claim that sound is the vibration of 
the ether or inner medium which enters into all solids and 
passes beyond all physical bodies, even to the remotest parts 



NATURE OF SOUNDS 27 

of the universe. This claim has been found not to be true. 
Light is ether vibration; but sound is the vibration of the 
molecules. The difference is important in determining 
some questions that follow later on in this book. 

But at the same time it is a fact that the vibrations of 
the molecules in the air may be transferred into the ether 
by the nervous action of the brain. 

We now approach the peculiar part of this subject; or 
the relation of the brain to sound. 

The first sentence of this chapter states that sound has 
no existence of itself. It makes no noise unless its vibra- 
tions act upon the nerve-centers of the brain. The noise 
it then makes is not actual. There must be a function in 
the nerves of the brain that translates or interprets the 
vibrations into what the mind accepts as sound. In the 
core of the brain, to use a common term, the gray matter 
of a series of cells is so acted upon by the vibrations of the 
air that they produce the result known as sound. 

Take a spoken word for example. 

The larynx of the throat holds in check a column of air 
that is passing out of the lungs. The vocal cords compress 
the column. Each cord or part of the larynx is so deli- 
cately hung that it trembles as the checked flow of air 
presses against it; and this motion passes to the air itself, 
which goes out of the mouth still trembling or vibrating. 
The varying rapidity of the waves gives rise to the varying 
degrees of pitch. 

Having thus set up vibrations of air, the effect is like 
that made on a mass of gelatine; the whole body of air 
vibrates in all directions, and as many persons can hear as 
are able to come within the range of the voice. Words 
are combinations of vibrations, or shapes into which they 
are -compressed. There are vowels and consonants. Vow- 
els are round, flat or open, owing to whatever shapes are 
given to the escaping column of air. Consonants are in- 
terruptions of the out-going air; the column being cut off 



28 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

by the interference of some part of the mouth, as the lips, 
teeth, point of tongue, middle of tongue, back of tongue 
and the parts of the throat. 

Now it is also true that the very nervous, overwrought 
brain will hear voices, created within the head, when all 
is perfect silence in the room; yet every word uttered within 
the brain will employ some of the vowels and consonants 
that only the mouth can shape. 

In dreams, in delirium, in fever, in fright, in exhaustion, 
the slightly inflamed brain acts as a magnifying power and 
furnishes not only sounds, but articulative speech as well. 
Likewise the supposed spirits of another world make use 
of the vowels and consonants of human language, always 
suiting themselves to the vernacular of the victim. 

It takes but very little fever or excitement or lesion of 
the brain-nerves to start sounds going. A man whose skull 
had received a severe blow and was almost fractured, was 
subject for years to the sounds of voices within his head. 
Actual conversations were carried on and song as well as 
instrumental music added to the visitations. An operation 
relieved the pressure, and the sounds disappeared. 

In every brain are centers of excitement that are normal 
only when the nervous system is normal. A throbbing nerve 
brings extra blood and greater pressure on the brain-cells; 
and if these happen to belong to the sense of sound, the 
result will be phenomena, both in mere noise and in actually 
spoken words. 

That the voices are the familiar tones of those we may 
have known in life, and w 7 ho perhaps are now dead, is due 
to the fact that the brain is a storehouse of past events and 
reflects in its excitement what it may have received or seen 
many years ago. Indeed it is probable that all the things 
that have occurred in the past, from youth to old age, are 
preserved in safety in the cells of the brain. 




29 



CHAPTER V. 

I GHOSTLY SOUNDS. 

i 

'ivivivki ii.i. 1.1.1,1,1,1.1.1.1,1,1, ~4~Ti~i~i~iT.~iTi~i~ . iTiTi. ,TiT ~i . i" 



OLLOWING the description given in the 
'preceding chapter, it may be easily seen how 
delicate a tissue of the brain is charged with 
the duty of creating sound. The waves that 
fill the mass of air are quiet and unobtrusive. 
The storm-tossed ocean is destructive in its 
violence, but has nothing of the power on the 
brain that is possessed by the silent and unseen vibrations 
that pass from a distant cannon and find meaning in the 
thought-centers. The billows may wreck a mighty ship; 
while the explosive sound will not even be heard if the 
brain is not able to give it existence upon its sensitive 
tissue. 

Motion is all about us. Much of it appeals solely to the 
eye. The silent growth of leaves and giant trees is a 
tremendous process in nature; but not one sound is made 
in its activity, because the brain is not aroused to interpret 
such a process. Unseen, unassuming, unfelt, the slight 
vibrations of air-masses, and not the air itself, reach the 
delicate nerve-centers and there are so enlarged that what 
was dead stillness outside, becomes the living impression 
known as sound. 

It is the sheer creation of the brain itself. 
The nerves that are employed to make this creation are 
surrounded by pulsing functions, rushing streams of blood 
and chemical changes that are necessary to the life of the 
brain; but, not being waves of the right kind, there is no 
noise to this machinery of the vital government. 



3 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

A normal brain hears few if any sounds that are not the 
direct result of air-vibrations. But let the nerves get out 
of order, let there be the slightest inflammation of the 
tissue in the sound-centers, and other creations are brought 
into existence than those that are transmitted by air waves. 

In nearly all kinds of fever there is excitement along 
the nerve of hearing, and congestion or pressure in the cells 
where sound is created. Noises result, and they are called 
strange. 

"Who is ringing that bell?" is asked by the fever- 
racked patient, when all is still. 

"Will you have that pounding stopped?" is also a re- 
quest from another similar source. 

The murderer who slew the traveling merchant one win- 
ter's night, heard the sleigh-bells of his victim until he 
sought peace by confession. The cries of those who have 
suffered at the hands of others have haunted the guilty 
parties for years afterward. " I have never for one day 
been free from the piercing shrieks of the man I killed," 
said a criminal to a member of the Psychic Society. 

Criminology abounds in such confessions. 

A woman left alone in a house by night may allow her 
thoughts to run to the possible dangers of her position. 
She may know that the doors and windows are securely 
bolted, and thus feel safe from all physical dangers; but 
soon her mind will run to the other channel, the super- 
natural. Stillness is so profound that the settling of the 
house itself, which seems to never end, produces sounds 
that could not possibly be heard in the day time, but that 
now are enlarged by the excited nerve-centers of her brain 
until each creak is a sledge-hammer blow. A leaf against 
the pane that rattles with such minuteness of motion as 
to be hardly as active as a breath on the rose, now is mag- 
nified into knocks by icy fingers. Tap, tap, tap, knock, 
knock, knock, the ghostly hand plays its weird tattoo on 
the glass, and the woman shrinks into the farthest corner 



GHOSTLY SOUNDS 31 

of the room, expecting to see the window open and the 
white form enter. 

One case that attracted attention was that of a man who 
had to work by night and sleep by day. He remained alone 
in an old Suilding. One evening he took up his work with 
an aching head which did not get better as the hours wore 
away. Then he rested for a while. The throbs of pain 
in his head were translated to him as the sounds of foot- 
steps in the hallways of the building. These came to his 
door, and a loud knock followed. 

" Come in," he said rather feebly. 

The knocking grew louder, and he now hurried to the 
door to find it unlocked, as he supposed, but the hallway 
empty. 

Somewhat alarmed, but of a strong resisting mind for 
such a belief as that a ghost were the cause of the sounds, 
he returned to his room after securely locking the door. 

He fell into a dose, but had his eyes open half the time, 
and soon saw the door open, but no form appear. He 
arose, went to the door and found it closed and locked. 
He afterwards admitted that this erratic vision was due 
to the excited state of his brain; but he could not under- 
stand the sounds. 

On a subsequent night, when he was free from the head- 
ache, he heard what he supposed were faint sounds, as of 
someone walking in bare feet on the hallway floor. He 
was now sensitive and nervous, and listened. In a short 
time the sounds changed to those of heavy steps in big 
boots in an empty room directly over his head. This was 
more than he could endure, and he called in an officer. 
The two men searched the building from end to end with- 
out result. 

On the next night he had a friend remain with him for 
the purpose of securing proof of the condition of things; 
but, as no sounds had been heard up to three o'clock, the 
friend went away. The man now being alone at once 



32 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

grew nervous and the sounds began. Footsteps were heard 
passing from the basement to the third floor, then back 
again, sometimes running, sometimes stamping, and finally 
ended at his door. Silence that was horrible ensued for 
what seemed minutes, then came a vigorous pounding at 
the door only a few feet away from him. 

He vacated the house the next day and moved into one 
that was occupied. No sounds were ever heard there, 
except one rainy night in winter when he imagined that he 
was back again in the old building, and footsteps were 
audible. As he listened he caught the rhythmic action of 
his own heart-beats corresponding with the blows made by 
falling feet, and he soon was satisfied that the noises were 
due wholly to an excited state of the sensitive tissue of 
the brain. 

Fear produces excitement, and excitement produces an 
abnormal activity of the brain. 

In a nerve-center that is charged with the duty of creat- 
ing sounds out of the silent vibrations of the air, any other 
creation is possible when inflammation, congestion, pressure 
or excitement may be present. 

It has been the most frequent of all investigations of the 
Psychic Society, to follow out the claims of people who 
have been alarmed by ghostly sounds; and not in one in- 
stance has there been any evidence that is conclusive to 
prove that spirits are the cause of such manifestations. This 
fact is so clearly in evidence to-day that it can be laid down 
as an axiom that ghosts make no sound whatever, even if 
they make themselves known at all. 




33 



CHAPTER VI. 
GHOST,LY VIOLENCE. | 

rivivlVl'TlTlTlTl "Tl'lTlTlTi .I.I.UI.I .I.I.IvIvIvI«M.M.IvI»I»I.I.I.I.IvI ,(vlvlvlvi" 



WO CLASSES of cases are to be considered 
under this general subject. By violence is 
meant the laying on of hands, or the rough 
physical demonstrations that attend the so- 
called visitations of the spirits. The first class 
is that in which the person who is visited is 
not in any way a party to a mediumistic influ- 
ence. The second class is that in which persons or things 
are roughly handled while a supposed medium is manipu- 
lating the spirits. 

In dealing with the first class, we have the same condi- 
tions that arise when ghostly sounds are produced ; and 
these have been disposed of in another part of this book. 
But the process is different. 

There are three kinds of contact with the brain of a 
human being in the uses of the senses most often involved 
in the manifestations: 

1. Physical contact, or the sense of touch. 

2. Vibrations of air-masses, or the sense of hearing. 

3. Vibrations of the ether, or the sense of sight. 
All three must reach the brain, or they will fail. 

If the nerves are paralyzed that connect the surface of the 
body with the head, the sense of touch fails; but it is none 
the less active. It thus differs from the sense of hearing 
and sight. 

To a blind person there is no light. To a deaf person 
there is no sound. But a blow dealt one who has lost the 
sense of feeling may, if violent, do injury. Such a person 
3 



34 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

can be pushed from a window and killed. He may be 
burned and suffer harm and even lose his life, while not 
feeling pain. 

The sense of touch is more necessary than that of hear- 
ing or sight; for the lack of it takes away part of the life 
of the body, and is sure to lessen the term of duration on 
earth. 

On the other hand the over-sensitive state of the body 
in the use of the sense of touch, is productive of many dis- 
agreeable experiences. One who is nervous suffers most 
from this cause. 

The surface of the body deceives the mind at times by 
sensations that are due to a defective supply of nervous 
power at the skin. 

" I felt the touch of a cold hand on my neck," is the 
statement of a nervous woman. But the cause of that 
feeling was an abnormal condition of the body at that 
part. 

" Every day or two a cold hand crawls down my back," 
says a woman who is likewise afflicted with a defective sup- 
ply of nervous vitality. 

A common case occurred recently. A man insisted that 
some one was poking a finger into the upper arm just below 
the shoulder. He would turn suddenly as if to catch the 
guilty party. But the fact was that he had on a stiff coat 
which bent inward at the place affected, and caused a pres- 
sure to come against the flesh whenever he moved. 

In another similar case a woman who insisted that she 
was being visited by spirits because a pressure was felt on 
the wrist when no person was in the room, was shown that 
the touch came from the wrinkling of clothing which 
brought a pressure to bear upon her arm. The degree of 
power was so slight that a normal individual would never 
feel it; but the super-sensitive nerves magnified it greatly. 

The opening of a door must be ascribed to physical action 
or the sense of touch. There are ghost stories unlimited 



GHOSTLY VIOLENCE 35 

in number and apparently sustained by conclusive proofs 
in which doors and windows are opened, and impossible 
feats accomplished with material matter. But these are 
merely " stories." Not one has ever been entitled to be- 
lief. They have been thoroughly investigated, without re- 
sult. 

A child cried to its mother in the night that some one 
had lifted it out of bed and laid it on the floor. The 
mother regarded this as a sign that the child would soon 
die. But she was shown other ways of accounting for the 
occurrence, and the child lived. The whole incident was 
founded on a dream that seemed to be a waking transaction 
to the mind of the child. 

Many persons claim that they have been visited at night 
by violent ghosts. One of the usual tricks is to tear the 
clothing from the bed. In no case that has been reported 
of this kind has the ghost been seen during the act of taking 
the clothing off. Yet we have received hundreds of affi- 
davits to the effect that some agency had, in the dark, 
removed the bedclothes, and even entered into a struggle 
with the occupant of the bed, always winning in the tug 
of war. 

In every such instance one person has had the experi- 
ence; never two in the same room or the same bed. This 
fact leaves the question of veracity open to doubt; for what 
occurs in the night to a nervous person may be charged to 
a highly excited nervous system, or to a state of half-wake- 
fulness, or a dream. Many dreams seem to be as real as 
the transactions of the day. 

In a list of more than one thousand reported cases of 
physical violence, not one has been based on the claim that 
injury was done to the individual. When force has been 
employed, it has done no harm of any kind. Some state 
that furniture has been broken, legs wrenched from strong 
tables, chairs demolished, pictured thrown to the floor, and 
crockery and china ruined by strange visitations; but there 



36 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

is not a single instance where two or more persons were 
witnesses of such deeds. In the very nature of the testi- 
mony bearing on these subjects, the word of one individual 
cannot be taken ; for all men and women, and even children, 
who are thus visited, are highly nervous before they pass 
through the experiences named. 

Under the subject of self-hypnotism, suggestion may arise 
from a passing thought, and the whole affair may occur in 
a cataleptic state. In proof of this assertion, over two hun- 
dred of the persons who made affidavits to the events stated, 
were found to be nervously diseased along cataleptic lines. 

There is a stage of this malady that admits of full con- 
sciousness of the mind, while the occurrences are due to 
the fault named. If two persons who were subject to the 
malady were to witness the same event, it would undoubt- 
edly be ascribable to suggestion from one in which both 
concurred. No human being, placed in such a situation, 
is able to tell the truth from the seeming facts, if he is the 
subject of the visitation, as it is termed. The explanation 
is apparent on its face in every such case. Yet honest men 
and women have sworn to* a state of facts that carried 
conviction to the unwary mind. The proof was unassail- 
able, as it appeared. 

Strict fairness requires us to state that every genuine 
medium or clairvoyant is a cataleptic. It is also true that 
every person who can be hypnotized, may be developed into 
a medium or clairvoyant, with more or less power to in- 
terpret the subconscious activities of the minds of other 
persons. But this takes us too close to the other depart- 
ments of this work. The laws of psychic life that apply to 
such cases will be found fully presented and explained in 
other pages. 

This statement is made here to show the many chances 
for error in accepting proof, even when under oath and 
offered by persons who are sincere and honest. " I know," 
and " I am absolutely sure," are terms that fall with ease 



GHOSTLY VIOLENCE 37 

from such lips, while their conclusions are wholly wrong. 
A clergyman of national reputation, and one who is uni- 
versally respected, said: "I certainly believe what I see 
with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, and feel with 
my own hands." He had a combination that was impreg- 
nable in his opinion; yet he finally admitted that he did not 
know how to interpret the senses that had supplied him 
with the apparent facts. 

Most of the things that are seen and heard under certain 
conditions are untrustworthy; and what is felt may be 
also a creation of the morbid mind of a nervous person. 



More troublesome to the investigator are the acts of 
violence that occur under the direction or leadership of a 
genuine medium. The latter term must not be accepted 
with the belief that we have discovered genuine mediums. 
Most of those who claim to be such, are frauds straight 
and simple. Many who are genuine have very limited 
powers, and are totally unable to communicate with spirits. 
But they can arouse a certain kind of violent action. They 
produce knocks that are heard by several persons in the 
same group. They cause tables to move, and chairs to be 
lifted up by invisible agencies. 

The fraud enters when they claim to possess powers to 
communicate with the dead. They have no such gift, nor 
has one human being that ever lived been given the power 
to bring the dead before the living, even in sound and 
action, in writing, or otherwise. There the fraud begins. 
Perhaps they may think in all honesty that they have such 
powers. A part of a gift may give rise to a belief that the 
whole faculty is present. 

Nevertheless there are mediums who are able to cause 
physical violence. We once owned a table that had been 
broken by such an agency, and it was made of genuine 
mahogany more than a hundred years old. The mere 
breaking of it did not prove that a spirit had taken part in 



38 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the transaction. It was the work of the subconscious fac- 
ulties, overcoming gravity and doing exactly what would 
occur in any successful attempt to annul that fundamental 
law of nature. 

It cannot be denied that gravity or the earth's attraction 
may be suspended. 

It has been proved that the psychical realm is one in 
which there is no law of gravity. 

Hence it is not at all wonderful that objects can be 
made to move about and show a defiance of this great force. 

Each of these conditions will be fully explained in turn 
as the present work progresses. 




39 



CHAPTER VII. 

1 PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS. | 



HOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of 
persons have agreed during life to send back 
information after death if there were life be- 
lyond the grave. These agreements are gen- 
erally made in sincerity. Some of them have 
been put in writing and sworn to, in order 
that the full impressiveness of the contract 
may be understood. If you can find any two women whose 
beliefs have turned strongly toward the future world, 
and who are close friends, you will likely find that a pre- 
mortem agreement has been made to the effect that the one 
who shall die first will, as soon as possible after death, fur- 
nish some information of the spirit life, telling what it is like 
and giving proof of the genuine existence of the soul as an 
immortal being. 

Men likewise who are close friends have made such 
agreements and are doing so to-day. In the several soci- 
eties for psychical research, these compacts have been made, 
both in England and America. In the latter organization, 
one of the foremost investigators agreed with his co-worker 
in the same cause, to make himself manifest in case he should 
die first; the other party promising the same thing in the 
event of his departing first. It seems that this case is one 
that cannot admit of doubt. After the death of one of 
the men, no manifestations were forthcoming until a me- 
dium was sought, a woman who had acted as clairvoyant 
to both of them for many years. Through her powers the 
dead man sent word of a very indefinite character telling 



4 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

vaguely and disjointedly some things that had occurred in 
the lifetime of the man. The results were such that the 
living professor is credited with believing that he actually 
did receive word from the spirit of his friend. 

But here again they have missed connections. The 
woman who acted as medium is a genuine clairvoyant. 
She has not been in a position to acquire the means of 
trickery, and has had no disposition to do so if she were 
so inclined. She possesses what all human beings own, a 
subconscious faculty; but hers is acute in the highest degree. 
On the pages of her mental book are written an endless 
number of impressions that respond to the wish of others 
through a state of utter chaos. There is nothing to pre- 
clude the theory that her subconscious mind unearthed after 
death the facts that were present in the brains of those who 
lived when she knew them. 

If the spirit of the dead wished to manifest itself to a 
living friend, it would not be necessary to select the most 
skilful of living mediums, and the most gifted clairvoyant 
of modern times, in order to so appear. Not many persons 
could secure the services of so rare an individual. Nor is 
such an appearance a fair test of the life of the spirit. 
Currents of interest run in grooves or like gulf stream 
lines, and a gifted medium would be able to reproduce 
thoughts and facts even after the death of one who had 
been a total stranger to her, and make known things that 
would be as strange to her own mind as to those who wit- 
nessed them. 

A wish and a hope are fathers of a large family of ideas. 
To expect an occurrence while under the excitement of a 
nervous strain, is helpful to its happening. Then another 
law comes into play, that of response to suggestion. Here 
are two fields of psychic phenomena, both of which produce 
wonderful results when measured by the ordinary trend 
of life. 

This is not the place to explain the process by which 



PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS 41 

messages apparently come from the dead, when the latter 
really know nothing of them and are barred from all possi- 
bility of sending them. To tell just how each case hap- 
pens would require the examination of the whole question 
of telepathy, and space forbids at this stage of the work. 
As there are a few well established instances in which the 
evidence seems strong and genuine that the spirits of the 
departed have actually had communications with living 
persons, we have thrown out the above hints to show how 
easily the mind may be misled. 

It all comes down to the question of connecting an 
occurrence with its real cause. We may not be sure that 
the thing has happened at all, or we may be sure; but it 
requires an expert mind to associate what is sure to have 
happened with the thing that caused it. Here is where 
so many mistakes are made. It is the wrong connection 
that misleads. 

If a medium attends Mr. Brown in a seance and imparts 
to him the information, no matter how indirect, that Henry 
Jones who died some time ago, now declares that he is 
alive in the spirit world, and tells of secrets that were 
known in life only to the two men, the proof seems to the lay 
mind to be conclusive that the spirit of Henry Jones is 
really alive and talking. Yet this all important conclu- 
sion is drawn from the mere fact that a medium has done 
some talking or writing. If there were no mystery or 
wonder in the communication, there would be nothing at 
all to it. We declare that the communication is born and 
lives wholly in the subconscious faculty of the medium. 

This assumes that the latter is honest. 

In the case of one who is free from the charge of fraud, 
the subconscious faculty does its work only when the mind 
of the medium is dead to all knowledge of what is being 
said or done. This makes it a senseless agent. That there 
are genuine mediums of this kind, there is no doubt. But 
as the medium is necessary to the manifestation, and as the 



42 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

communications are always chaotic and in every instance 
more or less silly, it is not fair to charge them to the spirits 
of the dead, but to the subconscious powers of the agent 
employed. This is the true explanation of every supposed 
case of communication between the dead and the living. 

Through a hundred assistants, each of whom secured the 
aid of many others, covering a period of nearly thirty years, 
the Psychic Society has investigated in the most thorough 
manner no less than 7,682 cases of attempts to send infor- 
mation of spirit life after death. They were cases of 
agreements between the closest friends when alive, where 
one died, and the other thought that some effort was being 
made to send some word. 

Over six thousand of these cases were disposed of by 
ascertaining that mediums had been consulted, with some 
slight results; but fraudulent practices made the work of 
the mediums worthless. 

In nearly all the other cases, the appearance was through 
dreams. One woman disclosed the manner in which the 
dream would bring on the manifestation. She was alone 
one evening, and wondered why her sister who had been 
dead for seven months did not try to communicate with 
her. She fell asleep in her chair, and dreamed that the 
sister stood before her in form as of old but radiant with 
the light of the new world. She took her hand and talked 
with her. But it was all a dream, and dreams are the 
work of the subconscious faculty, which performs wonders 
under the operation of natural laws not known to ordi- 
nary consciousness. 

No dream can be taken as evidence of spirit life. 

Yet in the case of the mother who was twice awakened 
in one night by seeing the face of her living daughter who 
was making two attempts to commit suicide, and who was 
found after the second dream in a bath room unconscious 
from the effects of gas, the direct work of the subconscious 
faculty is clearly manifested. No spirit law is involved in 



PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS 43 

such occurrences. Premonitions are common and they too 
are the work of the subconscious faculty. But they happen 
between the living and the living. 

A man whose wife had died claims to have seen her 
walking the street in front of him, and passing him at 
right angles. She gave a quick turn of her head in his 
direction and vanished in thin air. He went to his home 
and repeated the occurrence to his three sons, telling them 
that he was sure of having seen his wife's spirit. But the 
vision did not indicate that he saw anything more than the 
mirrored form of his wife in his ordinary brain, as is ex- 
plained in another chapter of this book. Not even the sub- 
conscious faculty was at work in this case. 

In another experience a man claims to have seen the 
spirit of his mother a few days after she died, and she was 
beckoning to him with her hand, as though asking him to 
follow her. He reported to his daughter and wife that 
the vision meant that he was to soon die. But many years 
have since elapsed and he still lives. 

In another case a mother whose child was very ill, being 
told by the doctor that she would probably die very soon, 
prayed for help and in reply the form of her mother ap- 
peared in the room at midnight, and the lips said : " I will 
help you. Cheer up. Your child will not die." This 
seems on its face to be evidence of the existence of spirits., 
but both the sight and the sound could be easily born in 
the ordinary brain under severe nervous strain in waking 
hours; or such experiences could have been dreams. Tired 
brains fall asleep without the knowledge of the sleeper. 
An illustration of this fact is noted in the report of the 
Bishop who saw the spirit of his brother standing close to 
him and talking. The Bishop was asleep in the room 
where four other persons sat reading. They were attracted 
to the sleeper by the snoring. This ceased in a few minutes 
and the man seemed to be passing through a nervous state 
for a second or two when he awoke and declared that he 



44 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

had not slept at all. He even said that he had kept his 
eyes wide open. He was honest but mistaken. Slumber 
comes on so quietly and stealthily at times that it is impos- 
sible to know that it approaches or that it has come and 
gone. 

A few strong cases of agreements made before the death 
of one party have been found, but in every instance a me- 
dium has been employed to bring the supposed dead into 
the presence of the living. The reports from the mystic 
realm have all been incoherent and unsatisfactory; leaving 
a certainty that the brain of the medium was responsible 
for the communications. 

There has not been a verified case of the appearance of 
the spirit to the eyes of a living person. The nearest ap- 
proach to such manifestation has been attended by the 
suspicion of nervous excitement or the dream state; and 
the testimony is therefore unreliable. A fleeting vision may 
be born in the ordinary brain under stress, as in delirium, 
or nervous tension ; and the subconscious faculty may repro- 
duce an endless train of visions under certain conditions. 
Sight and sound are shifting processes of the brain centers, 
always created by the power of the mind even when per- 
fectly normal. 

As an exception to the conclusions of this chapter, we 
must state that the soul in its flight from the body to its 
future home is given the power to manifest itself by vision 
and speech also; but only in a very limited space of time. 
There are thousands upon thousands of instances where 
this has happened ; and to deny them would be to fly into the 
face of what almost every intelligent person knows to be 
the fact. 

A psychic law comes into action in this class of cases, 
and a full chapter will be devoted to its discussion. 

But the soul in transit is not the spirit of the dead in 
the generally accepted use of the term. It is the life im- 
mortal winging its flight to other worlds, nevermore to come 



PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS 45 

to earth or to know of earth unless it shall meet loved ones 
in the hereafter. 

That mind and that life that are psychic are imperishable ; 
they live on in other worlds forever. 

That mind and that body that are physical must die. 
They get no farther than the earth. The body dissolves 
in a few years unless made secure against decay. 

The physical mind is taken from its fund to enter into 
the brain of man, just as the earth is taken from its fund 
to enter into the body. Sooner or later after death, the 
physical mind dissolves and disappears. 

In rare instances some knowledge of the post-mortem 
existence of the physical mind is secured ; generally within 
a few months after the death of the body. Some of the 
few genuine clairvoyants have succeeded in holding telep- 
athic communications with the intelligence of the physical 
mind after death. Many private experiments are being 
carried on by the aid of sensitive subjects of hypnotism; for 
a large percentage of persons who are put into the deep 
hypnotic sleep become more or less useful as telepathic 
agents. Three successful hypnotists have secured a total 
of seventeen such agents, every one of whom belongs to a 
good family and is in good circumstances, thereby precluding 
any employment for gain. This method is the most accurate 
channel for securing certain facts that can be found to-day. 

The world of investigation is just waking up. The next 
few years will bring to light an abundance of proofs that 
will sweep away old beliefs. Enough is already known to 
justify the assertion that the physical mind becomes a wander- 
ing intelligence after death, occasionally manifesting itself 
in form and speech, and eventually dissolving to join the 
fund from which it came. 



4 6 



CHAPTER VIII. 
I PREMONITIONS. 








OT LONG AGO the higher class of intelli- 
gent persons rejected all beliefs in what are 
known as premonitions. They had two rea- 
sons for discarding them. One was the sup- 
position that there had never been any satis- 
factory evidence to sustain the claim that 
people could receive warnings in advance of 
an actual occurrence. They argued that telepathy was 
merely the operation of the subconscious mind having the 
power to see happenings through channels other than the 
ordinary senses; and, as an event prior to its happening could 
not be seen by any faculty, there could be no premonition 
of it. 

This is good reasoning; but proofs that have been secured 
in the past few years, tend to show that it is not in harmony 
with known facts. 

The second reason for discarding such belief, was the 
supposed ill that would fall upon humanity if events could 
be seen ahead of their occurrence. 

In the first records made by this society we find the fol- 
lowing assertion : " It is the unanimous opinion of the mem- 
bers of the Psychic Society that fore-warnings and premo- 
nitions, as well as fortune-telling and forecasting of human 
history in every phase, are without foundation either in fact 
or principle, and must be regarded as species of error and 
charlatanry." 

This view has been changed to some extent. A mass of 



PREMONITIONS 47 

evidence has been secured, and it has all been sifted to the 
substantial facts as we now present them: 

1. There are many well sustained accounts of premoni- 
tions; so many and so well proved, that we cannot deny any 
longer our belief in them. 

2. The same is true of fore-warnings. They undoubt- 
edly occur. 

3. Special attention has been given to the problem of 
fortune-telling. There are some cases where the future has 
been correctly foretold, but they are few and of insub- 
stantial character. We therefore assert that fortune-telling 
is largely a matter of guesswork, coincidence or trickery. 

We obtained a stenographic report of one sitting where 
the fortune-teller, a woman of great success in her pro- 
fession, convinced a United States Senator of her genuine 
powers, for the reason that she told him things that were 
true in his past, which she had no means of knowing; yet 
so skilfully had she led him on in conversation that she had 
drawn from him the very facts that she related. To this 
skill was added some telepathic and clairvoyant powers that 
enabled her to make the chain complete. When the steno- 
graphic report was shown to him, he recalled- every part 
of it, and said : " I remember now that these things were 
said, but they had so completely escaped me that I would 
have sworn that they were never uttered." He thereupon 
lost all faith in the woman's gifts. 

A first class fortune-teller must possess the power of 
physical telepathy to begin with. Then there must be the 
ability to read the face, the form, the make-up and appear- 
ance of the client. There must be a good mind for guess- 
ing. The art of asking suggestive questions which will set 
the client talking, is also essential. One correct guess wins 
the faith of the individual, after which everything is easy. 

Under such a course of training as Universal Magnetism 
almost any person might acquire the power of substitution, 
which means the ability to so thoroughly sympathize with 



48 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the client that his personality gives way to that of the 
fortune-teller. As soon as the substitution is made the 
thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears of the client are all taken 
into the immediate life of the other, and so known. Great 
genius could carry this process to an unlimited extent, but 
it would require time and hard work to so school oneself 
to do all this. On the other hand any person however un- 
skilful may do the same thing in lesser degree and win pro- 
portionately. We can cite thousands of cases where this 
use of sympathy aided by Universal Magnetism has accom- 
plished wonders in countless ways; all helpful to both 
parties. In the family, in the school room, in the business 
and social worlds, in the professions, and in all walks of 
life, this phase of magnetism, noble and uplifting, is doing 
a vast amount of good that could not be done in any other 
way. 

The foregoing suggestions are made here solely to show 
the ease with which a sincere mind may be made to believe 
in forecasts of life that are unfounded and unreliable. 

Premonitions, however, are in a different class. 

They look into the future, but only a brief distance. 

The cases that have proved to be genuine are too many 
to be cast aside as coincidences. They are actual fore- 
warnings, but they have relationship only to the immediate 
future. 

There is not a case where satisfactory proof has been 
obtained showing a premonition that related to a coming 
event at some distant period in the future. If any person 
claims to have evidence on this point we will have it fully 
investigated. Of course it is true that many people really 
believe in length of premonitions, as they have had experi- 
ences that seem to sustain that view. But each instance of 
the kind is faulty in its chain of proof. 

The sensitive condition of the nervous system leads to 
many impressions that are built in the imagination, so that 



PREMONITIONS 49 

the party who is most in interest is most unfitted to tes- 
tify. 

The following account is a typical illustration of an 
authentic case of premonition : 

An engine-driver on a fast express train was killed along 
a straight piece of track by a blow from the end of a stick 
of timber on a freight car that was standing on another 
track. The timber had swung around far enough to reach 
the engineer as he looked out of his cab window. 

This kind of occurrence was unusual. It had never hap- 
pened to his knowledge during a period of thirty years. On 
the morning of the day that he was killed, he awoke from 
his bed with a sudden spring, saying he had just passed 
through a bad dream. He related the events to his wife, 
and said that he had seen the straight road, and the freight 
train on a siding with the lumber out of place on one of 
the cars. He received a severe blow on the head that felled 
him to the floor of his cab. The wife related this dream to 
her sister. Not one of them seemed to think it a serious 
fore-warning, and so he went to his work as usual. But 
before the hour of the accident, the wife called upon her 
pastor and related the full details of the dream, and she said 
it was depressing her so much that she could not think of 
anything else. 

We had the testimony of the wife, her sister, the min- 
ister and his family all of whom stated that they knew of 
the details of the dream for hours before the death oc- 
curred. 

Here is proof of a law different from that of telepathy 
in the physical sense. The latter is limited to physical 
happenings, and can portray only those things that exist 
in mind or in fact. On the other hand psychic telepathy 
discloses the events that are close at hand, and yet that have 
not yet occurred. 

It seems that somewhere in the universe there are beings 
who know what is about to happen to the detriment of 
4 



50 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

humanity, and who are interested enough to send warning 
in time to save them. No human agency and no human 
law can accomplish this end. 

A wife had gone to bed and was almost asleep when she 
saw the vision of her son standing before her, extending 
his hands and seeming to ask her to help him. As the 
vision lingered, the form of her husband was added to it, 
and he had an uplifted knife aimed at the boy's heart. She 
sprang out of bed, not knowing where to go. The room 
was as dark as it could be. In her nervousness she failed 
to find a light for some time. While groping in the dark 
she found herself in a store, the shelves of which with their 
contents stood clearly out before her view. 

A match was close at hand. She said she took it from a 
box on the shelf at the store. But when it was lighted, she 
was still in her own home, and bewildered. She dressed 
hurriedly. It was nearly ten o'clock. Out of doors she 
went and sought the services of a policeman. It seemed 
that her husband carried on a business at some distance 
from the house, and the officer referred her to the private 
on that beat. He thought her demented, especially as her 
hair was disheveled, and her eyes showed great excite- 
ment. 

On she went and found the officer. 

He took an immediate interest in the affair and accom- 
panied her to the store. As they reached the outer door 
they found it locked, but the sounds of a quarrel and scuffle 
were heard within. By pounding vigorously on the glass 
panel of the door, they were rewarded by the approach of 
steps and the appearance of the husband and son. It ap- 
pears that the man had made an accusation against the 
young man, and the quarrel followed. But the father, 
being the stronger of the two, had about vanquished the 
boy. He had been drinking, and stood with open knife 
over the form of the son, when the pounding on the door 
caused him to realize what he was about to do. This is 



PREMONITIONS 51 

the version told by son to his mother before she gave him 
any information about the vision that had come to her. 

In the investigation of this case it was proved that the 
woman told the first police officer that she had seen the 
vision of the father about to drive a knife into the boy's 
heart. This was actually related a full half hour before the 
quarrel began. The same story was also told to the second 
officer some time before there was any quarrel. Both the 
father and son stated that they had been on terms of peace 
all that evening, and that the father had just entered the 
store, made the accusation and entered into the scuffle. 

The result of the premonition was that the husband was 
cured of the drink habit. 

The law of physical telepathy sets forth the principle that 
the subconscious faculty is able to convey information of 
any physical transaction that is occurring or that ever oc- 
curred; as well as any sight present or past. In this case 
the woman saw something that had not happened, but that 
was about to occur. The event had not existed in the 
mind of either the father or the son until it actually began 
to take place. The son did not expect his father at the 
store, and the father did not expect to find him there. He 
was passing, saw the light within, and entered to ascertain 
what the young man was doing there at that time of night. 
Both had keys to the door. 

As there was no possibility of the thought existing in 
the mind of either, the vision could not be ascribed to 
physical telepathy, and therefore was due to the process 
known as psychic telepathy, which is a knowledge of what 
is to occur in the immediate future. Some power desired to 
save the life of the young man, and so sent premonition to 
his mother. 

There is a class of similar cases that prove this law to be 
a true one. Nor is it difficult to find a constant stream of 
instances of premonition going on at the present day. 

The Society was unusually desirous of ascertaining how 



52 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

long in advance a warning had come to any person. The 
cases that admit of the best proof all tend to show that 
premonitions do not arrive very long ahead of the occur- 
rence. They are almost always in dreams or in half wak- 
ing moments; but nevertheless as substantial as if they had 
come when persons are wide awake. 

There are more than forty records of visions that have 
appeared in broad day light, passing like a flash and leav- 
ing one dazed with wonderment. Nearly all of these re- 
lated to the death of the person to whom they appeared. 

A man saw before him a street car and thought he saw 
his mangled form beneath its wheels. He told two friends 
of what he had seen, and both advised him to keep away 
from car lines. It was early in the forenoon when the 
vision came to him. About five o'clock in the afternoon of 
the same day he was struck by a street car and killed in 
the manner in which the apparition had manifested itself. 
It is supposed that the incident had escaped his mind, and 
that he paid no attention to the warning. 

Premonitions sometimes come in voices, but the voices are 
in dreams as far as we have been able to ascertain. 

Several lines of proof are secured by the investigation of 
premonitions of deaths. They show: 

1. That psychic telepathy is at work. 

2. That some power has knowledge of events that are 
about to occur. 

3. That this power cannot be physical. 

4. That this power must be psychic. 

5. That such psychic power must exist beyond the earth. 

6. That some agency in heaven is interested in human 
affairs, and seeks to protect its favorites of earth. 

7. That the eternal principle of free choice is left open 
to humanity, which prevents the psychic power from inter- 
vening to actually save the life. 

8. No instance is known to the Society of a premonition 
of death having been obeyed and the event avoided. 



PREMONITIONS 53 

It would seem as if some person would give heed to the 
warning, and so be saved from the casualty. There are, 
however, cases of general forebodings that have been obeyed. 
They have been vague and indefinite. Many of them have 
come in time to save lives. In a clear case of a citizen of 
Cleveland, Ohio, who was about to take a train for New 
York City, it appears that he was seized with a chilly sen- 
sation whenever his thoughts turned to the trip. He told 
his wife of the strange feelings, and she advised him to 
take another train. It so happened that there was a wreck 
and he would have been in it had he gone at the time he 
first planned. This kind of case is quite common, and 
there is abundant proof of the warnings having saved life. 
But no direct vision has appeared, as in the approach of 
death. 

The distinction between the two classes of cases is a 
broad one and should be given careful thought. 

But in both lines of occurrence it is clear that some power 
has knowledge of what is to happen in advance of the fact, 
and before it has been crystallized into a substantial trans- 
action or even considered in any human mind. 

Here is solid evidence of a psychic power. 




54 



CHAPTEER IX. 

DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM. 

I 

LARGE MAJORITY of the people who 
think they believe in spiritualism, do not do 
so in fact. They are not deceived, but have 
made the wrong connections. The most in- 
telligent of their number admit that much of 
the work of mediums is fraudulent, but they 
know that some is genuine; and they rightly 
cling to the axiom that one truth is sufficient no matter 
how much falsehood it travels with. A dollar's worth of 
gold in a ton of earth is worth a dollar, no matter how 
little the dirt is worth. 

This is the situation with the so-called science of spirit- 
ualism. 

There is a ton of fraud, and a mite of truth. 
But the truth, no matter how firmly established, is not 
the kind of proof that must be required to make clear the 
fact that human beings are able to hold communications 
with the spirits of the dead. 

This chapter will be devoted to the latest and best known 
results obtained from a perfectly fair and impartial inves- 
tigation of the claims made in behalf of such doctrines. 

What is stated herein is not only the truth, but is con- 
curred in by all qualified experts who have gone into the 
analysis of the subject to the fullest extent. Opinions and 
theories are given no standing. If there is not a clear 
line of proof, and a psychic law to sustain it, the matter is 
left undecided. 



DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 55 

Spiritualism has always relied upon physical manifesta- 
tions. 

There is a constant suggestion of what is to occur. Per- 
sons who are present, being nervous and more or less ex- 
cited, fall under the influence of this suggestive power. The 
familiar mask seems to them to be the exact face of father, 
mother, sister, brother or friend, looking out of the spirit 
world upon them. 

Luminous phenomena have recently been produced by 
Dr. J. Maxwell of Bordeaux, France, that seem to baffle 
all attempts at explanation except on the theory of being 
ethereal bodies; but they have not been as thoroughly inves- 
tigated as they will be in the near future. If they should 
be pronounced free from fraud and deception, they will 
merely take rank as additional proofs of the assertions made 
in the latter part of this book. 

Prof. Charles Richet has recorded an extraordinary case 
of materialization that was obtained under open conditions 
where fraud was seemingly impossible. Sir William 
Crookes gave personal testimony of physical manifestations, 
but his case comes under the conditions described in the 
chapter concerning ghostly violence. 

One class of cases seems to be free from the possibility of 
fraud. The medium will cause a cloud to issue from the 
side of the body, and a spirit will appear in the cloud. Yet 
in October, 1906, a showman by name of Maskelyne at St. 
George's Hall, London, reproduced the whole phenomena, 
and admitted that it was done by trickery. 

Editor William T. Stead of London announced to the 
world that he had found in a Mrs. Mellon, an English 
medium, the only person of undoubted materializing fac- 
ulty and undoubted character in the United Kingdom. 
Shortly after a seance held at Melbourne, Australia, a skep- 
tical individual in the audience seized the materialized spirit, 
and found it to be Mrs. Mellon herself. The investigating 
skeptic was assaulted by several persons present, but he held 



56 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

on to the spirit, and thus the only medium of materializing 
faculty and character in the United Kingdom was caught 
red-handed. 

In addition to gauze masks, there are robes so thin and 
light that they can be folded and concealed in the hollow 
metal heel of the shoe worn by the medium, or the con- 
cealed hollow belt that is fastened to the inside of a skirt, 
or in hollow legs of chairs, or seats. One robe that con- 
tained yards of cloth, was folded small enough to be shut 
up in a watch case. A dozen masks may be so attached 
to the clothing as to seem a part of it. All is gauze, light 
and flimsy. They are dipped in phosphorous paint thinned 
with turpentine, and then perfumed and dried. 

Different heights of spirits are shown by various tricks. 
A child was portrayed by a stooping attitude in One case 
assisted by a proper mask; and in another instance by hold- 
ing out a mask with a small robe dangling from it. The 
excited person in the audience who imagined the child to be 
the spirit of one whom she had lost a year before, sprang 
to embrace it, and found only the mask and the gauze held 
by the extended hand of the medium. 

The tied hands and legs of mediums that are so quickly 
released are manipulated in the well known manner em- 
ployed by the Davenports, who were assisted by the Ma- 
gician Kellar, who has reproduced about every manifesta- 
tion ascribed to mediums. 

The cabinets often contain hollow doors, or hollow base- 
boards in which many things may be hidden. 

In one series of seances in which the medium remained 
tied all the time, and in full view of those present, seven 
others assisted by coming down through a trap door in the 
ceiling above, entering the cabinet, one after the other. 
One of them was dressed wholly in black, with a black 
mask over his face, but the right arm was coated with 
luminous paint. He walked among the people, writing 
messages with the arm, which seemed to float in space, as the 



DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 57 

body was almost invisible. He thrust these messages in the 
pockets of persons and gave other evidences of being a real 
spirit. 

One of the most convincing manifestations of recent years 
is that in which a ball of light gradually enlarges and pro- 
duces a full size spirit. Many persons have been converted 
to a belief in the spirit doctrine by such a display. But the 
method has been exposed. The person who acted the part 
of the ball of light was a woman who was let down from a 
room above into the cabinet. She was clad in white with 
a black mask. She thrust a rounded foot under the curtain 
of the cabinet and the light being concentrated on this white 
object made it shine like a ball. " Then she gradually thrust 
the lower part of her dress under the curtain until her 
crouched form look like an enlarged ball of white. Finally 
she stood erect and laid aside the black mask, making it 
appear as if her head was the last part of the body to grow 
into place. The process was reversed, until she had again 
shrunk to the small white ball and wholly disappeared. 

Hereward Carrington, a member of the famous English 
Society for Psychical Research, and also of the independent 
American Branch and a member of the Council of the 
American Institute for Psychical Research, has devoted 
many years to an almost unbroken series of investigations, 
and sums up his knowledge in the following statement: 

1. He started out in cold skepticism, expecting to find 
everything psychic to be fraudulent. 

2. He now believes thoroughly in telepathy. 

3. He now believes thoroughly that some trance mani- 
festations, some clairvoyance, some premonitions, most hyp- 
notic phenomena, alterations of personality, and subcon- 
scious mental activities are absolutely proved beyond cavil 
or doubt of any kind. 

He says also that it is possible that genuine materializa- 
tion exists as a fact in nature. To use his own words: 
" There must be some force in the world as yet unknown." 



58 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

It is an indisputable fact that all the manifestations of 
mediums have been reproduced by magicians; and that 
mediums are either themselves magicians or employ that 
profession to aid them. 

The Psychic Society had in its employ a man not over 
thirty years of age, who was at the same time in the em- 
ploy of mediums. The latter were converting skeptics by 
the scores every year to a belief in spiritualism, on the 
ground that their manifestations and materializations could 
not possibly be the work of human agencies, and must there- 
fore be accepted as the product of spirit powers. 

The world of advanced investigation has come to the 
conclusion that the reasoning faculties are not endowed 
with the ability to draw conclusions from any supernatural 
phenomena, for the latter are not in the same realm as the 
mind. A person whose experience has been confined to one 
world cannot, without a taste of another world, pass judg- 
ment on the operations thereof. The reasoning powers are 
not qualified to settle the claims of any religion ; and the 
age of reason is an era wholly deprived of any right to sit 
as arbitrator over a world that it cannot even enter, to say 
nothing of its helplessness to become a ruler of the same. 

Of all the erring faculties, the process of reason is the 
weakest and most unreliable. The same proofs and the 
same chain of reasoning can be made to lead to exactly op- 
posite conclusions in the hands of skilful thinkers. Take 
the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
and the Courts of highest appeal in the various States, as 
examples of this faulty operation of the human mind. The 
same state of facts will lead by the soundest kind of rea- 
soning to results that are in violent conflict all along the 
line. 

A short time ago a body of able lawyers and keenest 
minded business men who had won gigantic fortunes, spent 
three weeks in dissecting the decisions of the highest court 
in a great State on criminal cases; and as hair-splitting 



DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 59 

followed hair-splitting, and discrepancy followed discrep- 
anc)'', they saw nothing but ridicule in their analysis of 
those decisions that are famous all over the world for their 
microscopic technicalities. A business man said: "If the 
business of the nation were to be conducted on the same 
mental methods as the business of the courts must be under 
those decisions, every man of sound sense would go out of the 
commercial world into one of dreams. I never realized 
that high courts could split hairs so fine. I always sup- 
posed that the rulings of the courts were made for the 
purpose of simplifying the effort to get at the facts and do 
justice." 

Yet the peculiarity is that those decisions are founded on 
what seems on its face to be good reasoning. The logic 
is invincible. They read nicely as they progress toward 
their conclusions. But it is when those conclusions are 
taken and held up to the admitted facts that the mind re- 
ceives a shock from which it cannot easily recover. 

The highest tribunal in the land, the United States 
Supreme Court, has reversed itself many times on facts 
that are identical, but that have occurred at different peri- 
ods in the political history of the nation; showing the bias 
of a court that should be free from all such influences. Yet 
the reasoning is perfect, and must stand as a model to the 
end of time of the manner in which the same sign-post can 
guide the mind on the same road in two directions at the 
same time, one diametrically opposite the other. 

Thus we see the infallibility of reason to draw conclu- 
sions from a proved state of facts. 

Take the same conditions in the study of spiritualism. 

Suppose it is proved that actual knocking is heard, 
and that the knocks respond to questions that are asked ; 
thereby securing replies to almost any line of inquiry that 
may be made. One person says that this is proof that a 
spirit did the knocking. But the fact is that there is no 
connection between a spirit and the manifestation. There 



60 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

are twenty better explanations of the knocking than that. 

Now suppose that the slate-writing were true, despite 
the fact that it has been proved to be a clever trick. The 
slate is made to write the words: " I am John Smith. I 
died eight years ago. I have been in the spirit world 
ever since." Suppose all that were actually written with- 
out fraud upon a slate. Does it prove that the assertions 
are true? There are a score of explanations for such writ- 
ing, better than the theory that a spirit produced the 
words. One man says: "It must be true for it says so. 
A spirit would not lie. If it would not lie, then what is 
written is the work of a spirit, because it says so." Here 
the reasoning is wholly faulty. The mind has the wrong 
connections. A young man tells his sweetheart that she is 
the first girl that he ever loved. She carries the state- 
ment in triumph to her mother, who asks her why she be- 
lieves it to be true, and she replies: " I am sure that I am 
the only girl he ever loved because he told me so." 

When we come to the study of psychic telepathy, we 
will see the source of all the so-called communications with 
departed spirits. 

As to the methods of writing on the inside surface of 
slates that are securely tied together, we will state that 
such writing is being done to-day by mixing iron filings 
with chalk and mucilage, slipping a small lump of the same 
between the slates, and then using on the finger outside a 
magnet that will cause the lump to write. Another method 
is to control the tying of the slates so that a long piece of 
thin wire can be slipped between them, and move a tiny 
bit of chalk over the surface. 

The first qualifications of a medium seem to be that he 
must possess the agility of a magician, perform slight of 
hand with ease, and be a genius at invention or imitation. 
There are scores of fakirs over the world who can do amaz- 
ing things that cannot be accounted for by the first thought 
except on the thory of the supernatural. 



DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM (5i 

In closing this chapter, we wish to mention one kind 
of manifestation that seems most puzzling. It has been 
sufficiently proved to be now accepted as a fact. It is the 
vibration that will sometimes concentrate on a given spot 
especially in the dark hours of night, when a person is 
alone. In one case a man heard it in his room at the top 
of his door, and a family overhead was awakened by it. 
He got a chair and stood close to the spot where the vi- 
brations were occurring, and saw the trembling of the door. 
This manifestation was repeated for one hundred nights 
and then ceased, never to return. Mr. Carrington, to 
whom we have referred, and whose testimony is regarded 
by his scientific brethren as fully reliable, says: 

" In considering the evidence in favor of and against 
' raps ' I find that there is a certain weight of evidence in 
favor of their genuine character. But the principal rea- 
son that I believe that raps are sometimes genuine is that 
I myself have obtained them in my own apartment, where 
I live alone — no other person being present at the time. 
For four or five weeks rappings would begin in my room 
about 10 o'clock and continue until I went to sleep and 
would increase in violence at the time I went to bed. They 
did not sound like creaks of the furniture, but like knocks 
made through thick cloth and upon woodwork. One night 
when they were louder than usual and keeping me awake 
I got out of bed and located them on my mantel-piece, 
where I could feel their vibrations. It was a queer sensa- 
tion to feel them coming at the very spot I was intently 
watching. An unexplainable feeling of apprehension would 
often come just before such raps would be heard there 
and in other parts of the room. Several other per- 
sons distinctly heard them on various occasions. One night 
I received them by concentrating my attention while await- 
ing a communication. Once I placed upon my couch a 
package of papers, fastened together with rubber bands. 
Instantly there was a loud, quick snap, just as if the 



62 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

band had been lifted and allowed to fly back. During 
the time the raps were loudest I would feel a distinct pres- 
ence in the room or in the hallway, and once during these ap- 
parent hauntings a person occupying a flat on the same floor 
with me and having no inkling of my experiences, suddenly 
felt this presence, unsuggested. These raps have now ceased 
and I am well pleased that they have." 

That such phenomena are the result of a power within 
the human body will be seen later on in our work. But, in 
the absence of such proof, no one is justified in ascribing 
the cause to spirits. 

The dead depart for one of two purposes: either to take 
flight from this earth and all its scenes, or else to pass 
again through the experiences of earthly existence. In the 
pages of the second division of this volume, these facts will 
be clearly shown. 

But the dead, after the spirit has freed itself from the 
body and its environments, are forever helpless as far as 
any communication with the living is concerned. 

It is to show this utter helplessness on the part of the 
departed souls, that this book is written ; or, at least, that is 
one of its great purposes. 

Facts are facts. 

They are more than recorded statements; they are actual 
living things. 

Let every person who feels willing to know the truth, 
lay aside all preconceived beliefs and come into close study 
of the subject for the sole end of learning the facts, no 
more and no less. To close the mind against any other 
belief than the one which has been nurtured until it has 
become a second nature, will not advance any man or 
woman along the royal highway of knowledge. 

Let us have the truth. 

Many persons who thought they believed in spiritualism 
will see, before this book is closed, that they have uncon- 
sciously had faith in the true thing under another name. 




63 



CHAPTER X. 

^f>3R/K/K?i"lTt ~lVl~ riTttl "V llTl". i l,l,l..,l.l.l.lvlvKI.I.I.I.I . I , Ivlvklvlvl V"i\/l\/i\^ 

I THE SOUL IN PASSAGE. f 

;i'vV.v.'i""i~~"i~ i i. i.i.i.i.i,i.i.ivi,i.i.i.kc.i,i,i,i.i.i.i.i.i.iu»i .i^i.ivi* 



OME THINGS are so well known that 
they afford no room for doubt, and very little 
for discussion. While it is quite well estab- 
lished that the spirits of the dead do not live 
on and maintain communications with the liv- 
ing, it is a proved fact that the soul in its 
flight makes its presence known at times and 
places, on its way out from the environments of earth. Each 
individual case does not exert an influence on the mind and 
belief of the general public ; but when the authentic instances 
are collected, they make an amazing mass of testimony that 
cannot fail to settle a question that should not be in doubt 
even in this era of speculative thought. 

If any Psychic Society were to devote itself to this one 
phase of the study of such phenomena, it would have but 
one verdict to report. Its chief work has been assigned to 
the investigation of ghosts, or the spirits that live on, as it 
has been claimed, long after death. 

The departure of the soul is manifested, if at all, to 
those who are interested in the individual from which it 
has gone forth. This being true, it follows that its mani- 
festations are confined to a close relationship or friendship. 
Such ties are sacred, and the experiences are rarely ever 
paraded before the public. They are both the most con- 
vincing and the most obscure of proofs. 

In the beginning of this account let the distinction be un- 
derstood between the ghosts and sprits of the dead, remain- 
ing in communication for months and years after life has 



64 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

ceased in the body, and the passage of the soul in its flight 
from earth. There is a vast gulf between the two classes 
of cases. In the first class it has been shown that there 
is no proof of and no possibility for any ghost or spirit to 
continue in communication with the living. Every psychic 
law is against it, and not one tangible fact of any kind has 
been sustained that proves it. 

On the other hand the soul in its passage makes itself 
known in various ways for a brief period, and then is gone 
forever. Its fate is given many chapters of consideration in 
the second division of this treatise. 

There is no field of psychic investigation where so much 
is known of so small a stage of the existence of the soul. 
By the use of the word much the idea to be conveyed is 
that there is an overwhelming mass of testimony on this 
brief span of spirit life. 

Not every person has had evidence of the passing of the 
soul. 

It is possible that not more than one person in a hun- 
dred, if as many, can state with certainty that manifestations 
of this kind have occurred. But the total number of per- 
sons who can so testify is, nevertheless, very great. Mem- 
bers of investigating committees have not in the beginning 
of their work directed their attention to the claims of those 
who have had evidence of the flight of the soul; but they 
soon find that such evidence is the most abundant of any 
that bears upon these problems. The result is that they 
soon learn to take for granted the fact that the soul does 
pass out of the body in a way that can be understood by all 
classes of people. Scientists who had no opinions on the 
subject before they came across this line of testimony, are 
quickly converted to a fixed belief in the fact. 

What transactions have convinced them? 

A man who was at work in 1906 in his place of business 
at the hour of ten o'clock in the morning, with the bright 
sun shining in the room, saw the form of his wife enter- 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 65 

ing at the door. She came directly to him, but said noth- 
ing. He supposed that she had come for money with which 
to do some shopping, and he pulled forth two bills to give 
to her. But she had gone. Three others in the room saw 
him take out the money, and noted the look of alarm on his 
face when he was about to hand it to her. 

" That was my wife," he said. 

They told him that no one had been there. But he ran 
to the door and called loudly to her. In distress he put 
on his hat and coat to go to his home, when a messenger 
brought the news that his wife had been killed by an auto- 
mobile as she was about to pass in at the gate to her home. 
The car had left the road in making a sudden turn at a 
speed of a steam locomotive, and, dashing on the sidewalk, 
had crushed out the life of the woman. 

She had been dead not more than two minutes when the 
vision entered the husband's office. 

This kind of an occurrence is common. It seems that the 
spirit is helpless to speak. It cannot be accounted for on 
the theory of the subconscious power of the person visited, 
for the process is the reverse of that. 

A woman was walking along a public highway on a 
bright afternoon and saw her sister running hard towards 
her. As they met, the sister stopped, held out her hand 
which was very white, looked with eyes that were large, 
full and melting, into the eyes of the woman, and was no 
more. Two passers-by noted the fact that the woman had 
stopped, and that she was evidently in trouble. They ad- 
dressed her when they saw that she was faint. But it was 
clearly established that she showed no signs of being faint 
until after she had stopped. She told her story to them 
and took their addresses, and they received hers, as it was 
the desire of all to know what the vision portended. That 
night a telegram came from a city four hundred miles away, 
telling of the death of the sister that had occurred at about 
the moment of the vision. 
5 



C6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

The time is important as it shows the rapidity with which 
a soul may move. 

Another fact is important. The woman who saw the 
vision was east of the sister's home. In view of the uni- 
versal fact that the spirits move in an easterly direction, it 
is well to note the relationship between this point of the 
compass and the other operations of nature. 

A physician who had lived all his life in New York and 
most of it in New York City, and who held prominent po- 
sitions in medical organizations, lost his wife. She had a 
sister living in Brooklyn, east of New York. At the hour 
of her death, according to letters written to the author by 
the doctor, the passage of some unusual vitality made its 
course through the city, giving evidence at the homes of 
several dear frinds, and finally appearing to a living sister 
across the bridge. Investigation proved that every detail 
of the account was true. 

A man died in the city of Washington, D. C, and his 
form appeared in London, then in Paris, then in Rome, 
and finally in Calcutta, India, all in a space of ten hours. 
The vision was so distinct in each case that the time was 
noted, as some accident was feared. They all compared 
notes afterward, and the time was adjusted to that at 
Washington, showing a lapse of ten hours from the time 
of the death there before the final appearance at Calcutta. 
There was a lapse of but thirty minutes from the demise 
to the vision in London ; then a lapse of three hours be- 
tween the presence in London and that in Paris. Two 
hours and ten minutes afterward the vision appeared in 
Rome, and a little more than four hours later it was in 
Calcutta. 

These different periods in time indicate that the spirit 
had the power to remain in one place for a while. If this 
is so, where is its abode, and how does it busy itself? 

An officer of the English army died while visiting a dis- 
tant relative in Berlin. Almost nineteen hours later his 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 67 

presence was distinctly seen by three fellow officers in Lon- 
don. On its face this shows that the spirit moved in a 
westerly direction. But a letter from Bombay, India, ar- 
rived in due course of time, stating that the vision was seen 
in that city. The date and hour were fixed beyond doubt, 
and they proved conclusively that the spirit had moved in an 
easterly direction, having been in Bombay within four hours 
after death, and thence showing itself in London fifteen 
hours after that time. The course must, therefore, have 
been easterly, and the spirit nearly traversed the earth. 

A man in Washington, D. C, whose nephew was in office 
in the same city, received a telegram from his sister asking 
if anything had happened to the young man, who was her 
son. The despatch said nothing further. It arrived over 
the wires at 9:32 in the morning. It left New Haven at 
8:13 the same afternoon. A letter was mailed soon after 
the telegram was sent, saying that the mother while dressing 
in her bedroom that morning looked out the window and 
saw her son coming across the lawn. He staggered and 
fell to the ground. Calling to another person in the house 
she told him to hurry out and help the young man as he 
had come home sick and was lying on the grass. When she 
looked out again he was not there, but she supposed that 
he had arisen and found his way into the house. A search 
resulted in nothing but deep mystery. The mother at once 
surmised that the sight she saw was a vision of her son, and 
she sent the telegram to Washington for information. 

The man who received it called as soon as possible at 
the boarding place of his nephew. They said that the 
young man had not been seen that morning. Search was 
made and he was found in his room still in bed. Physi- 
cians were summoned who stated that his death had oc- 
curred early that morning. The mother fixed the time of 
seeing the vision as about ten minutes past seven, as she 
arose promptly at seven and had but partly dressed. 

In this instance the spirit moved in a northerly direction, 



68 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

but to the east. It is not possible to assert that had the 
death occurred in Connecticut, and the mother been in 
Washington, the spirit would have taken flight around the 
whole world in order to have made the visit at Washington ; 
but the chances are that it would have done that or not 
appeared at all. In all the cases investigated there is 
nothing to indicate that such a flight would not be taken. 

Another army officer died in Lyons, France, and his spirit 
appeared in Manchester, England, within seven hours. In 
that period of time, it was seen in Egypt and also in China, 
but in successive passage, showing that it did not manifest 
itself simultaneously at any two places, but maintained a 
journey. 

All authentic accounts of the passage of the soul have con- 
formed to this habit of traveling in an easterly direction, 
deviating to the north or south at will, but not reversing the 
direction. 

There are over three hundred verified cases of visions 
of persons who have died in India appearing in England. 
In most of them there have been no middle stations or stop- 
ping places between India and England, and the first 
thought would be, if considered at all, that the flight had 
been westerly. But in a few cases there have been inter- 
vening visions of the same spirit, and these prove that the 
flight was easterly all the way. This warrants the asser- 
tion that all the other journeys have conformed to the 
natural law of an easterly flight. 

The earth revolves on its axis in an easterly direction. 
This makes the sun seem to rise in the east and set in the 
west. The earth makes its annual course around the sun 
in an easterly direction. This fact is shown by the stars 
and constellations all rising in the eastern sky. The moon 
revolves around the earth in an easterly direction. She is 
seen in the west as a crescent; but night after night she 
travels more and more away from the west, going to her 
eastern home. 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 69 

The sun throws off its light and fire in an easterly di- 
rection and the planets move on their orbits also in an east- 
erly course. The solar system is making its journey in the 
same harmonious way around the other systems of the sky. 

All life is directly derived from the sun. All vitality 
springs from that giant orb. Whatever has come to man 
on earth, whether in substance or in psychic character, has 
been donated by the sun. All the light and heat of the 
earth is borrowed. There is harmony in the heavens. 
Suns, planets, satellites and star-dust all move in one stream 
of flight, trending to the east; and in their sweep the soul 
is very likely engulfed. Ether is the universal atmosphere 
of the entire sky; and, as the soul is ethereal, it probably 
has the power to assume inconceivable speed in its passage. 

In ninety-five per cent, of the cases investigated, the 
parties involved have been blood relations or husband and 
wife. In the other five per cent, they have been close 
friends. In no case has there been a manifestation from the 
spirit of a stranger or a mere acquaintance or ordinary 
friend. Two men who were closely associated in study 
were seperated by the death of one, and his spirit came in a 
very distinct manner to the survivor. 

This occurred one minute after death. 

Three women in a small village were allied in church 
work for many years, and had become fast friends. One 
of them died at a hospital to which she had been carried in 
her last sickness. The two others were at their homes nine 
miles away, each alone in her room, the houses being about 
two hundred yards apart. When their friend had gone 
to the hospital, they were assured that she would get well 
and be about in a few weeks. The demise occurred at 
fourteen minutes past nine. One of the survivors sat in 
her room winding her watch, which was afterwards found 
to be three minutes fast. As she held the watch in her 
hand the spirit of the dead woman, or the form itself as 
though living, entered and stood before the surprised be- 



7 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

holder. The watch stopped at eighteen minutes past nine, 
or one minute after the death. 

" How did you get here? " she asked. 

No reply came, but still the woman saw the face and 
form, and the well known dress; and, as she sprang for- 
ward to greet her, the vision receded, not by steps, but by a 
gliding motion, and left the room at the wall. 

Calling another person in the house, the frightened 
woman told what had happened, and decided to call at once 
on the other friend, who lived about six hundred feet 
away. 

It seems that the latter had begun preparations for re- 
tiring, and was alone in her room, seated on the edge of the 
bed. She turned to place something on the pillow when 
she felt the touch of a warm hand on her arm. She ut- 
tered a scream that was heard by others in the house, who 
ran to her. Before they came, however, she saw the arm, 
then the head and upper half of the body of the woman 
who had died, and the vision ended in less than four sec- 
onds. The time was two minutes later than that of the 
manifestation at the house of the other woman, or three 
minutes after the death nine miles away. 

Here were facts enough, with witnesses enough to make 
a clear case. But when the first woman reached the house 
of the second and found all in commotion, the entire village 
knew of it, although as yet there had been no news of the 
result at the hospital. Everybody seemed to feel certain 
that the invalid had died, and this fact was confirmed the 
next day. 

Case after case might be cited along the same line. 

One great law seems to run through them all, and that 
is the close proximity of time between the death and the 
manifestation. 

There is not a single instance of a manifestation more 
than fifty hours after the death, and but one in our records 
as late as that. In this case the spirit visited a home four 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 71 

times. It was the husband of a woman who had no chil- 
dren and was living in her own house with two sisters. 
The man had died in a railroad wreck. He had been badly 
injured, and his head was bandaged after he was pulled 
from the car. In the effort to save other sufferers, he was 
placed along the bank near the track, and left there for 
hours, when he died. The wreck occurred at a few minutes 
past six in the evening, and he passed away before ten o'clock 
the same night. 

The wife lived in Newark, New Jersey, and the hus- 
band died in the State of Illinois. Making due allowance 
for the difference in time, the first vision appeared ten 
minutes after the demise. The wife was terribly fright- 
ened when it passed out of the room, for she had thought 
her husband had actually returned sooner than he was ex- 
pected, and she rose to greet him, calling him by name. 
Her voice was distinctly heard by her two sisters; then her 
scream followed and brought them to her assistance. 

" He has been killed ! He has been killed ! I just saw 
him! His face was white!" These were her ejaculations 
as she tried to explain to her sisters what she had seen. 

The wife refused to go to bed that night. 

Her sister sat up with her. At about three o'clock in 
the morning the form of the man was seen, this time with 
the bandage about his head. One of the sisters also saw the 
face, and the other sister saw the general outline, although 
dimly. He seemed to appear directly to the wife. He 
tried to speak, but could not. He raised his hand and 
placed it to his head, and closed his eyes, then opened them 
again. The women were paralyzed with fear, and could 
not speak. The vision then passed away. 

Two days afterwards, the man came in a clear white 
vision with a radiant face and bright features, and stood by 
her side. He lifted his hand and pointed upward, and 
vanished. 

At just fifty hours after the time of the death, as the evi- 



72 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

dence afterward showed, he came once more into the pres- 
ence of the three women, and again pointed upward. Com- 
ing somewhat closer he extended both hands to the wife, 
and raised them, adding a gesture of beckoning as though 
asking her to follow him. Then his body floated away, 
and, as she declared, in an upward direction. The final 
visit was witnessed almost wholly by all the three sisters. At 
this time two other relatives were in the house, as the news 
had come of the accident; and they heard the commotion 
that followed. 

The widow expected soon to die and follow him; but 
has lived on for many years. She had no belief in spiritual- 
ism prior to the death of her husband ; but afterward, as he 
did not again appear to her, she sought the aid of mediums, 
but without avail. 

In this case the evidence was trustworthy. 

It should be noted as a constant fact that the manifesta- 
tions of the passing soul do not occur by the aid of mediums ; 
while almost all communications with the spirits of the dead, 
as claimed, are wholly through the agency of mediums. 
This fact alone helps to settle the much discussed question 
of the genuineness of the seances. 

This peculiar phase of the phenomena will be found uni- 
formly present in every case that has been investigated by 
the committees of other psychical societies. The communi- 
cations with the dead require the aid of mediums; but the 
manifestations of the departing spirit are made to the rela- 
tives or friends direct. Thus the honesty of the latter and 
the unreliability of the former can at once be assumed. 

The facts that have been established are as follows: 

1. The spirit of the person who has recently died does 
in fact leave the body. 

2. It takes passage at once. 

3. It may linger about its old haunts or be delayed in 
transit in other places; but never more than a day or two. 

4. It journeys in an easterly direction. 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 73 

5. It appears only to those who are related or otherwise 
dear in association or friendship. 

6. It rarely speaks or makes a sound, although there 
are claimed instances of the use of words. 

7. It is seen but briefly, rarely more than a second or two 
of time being the duration of its visit. 

8. Its purpose seems to be a desire to see some one that 
it has loved in life, and to pass on. 

9. The deduction can be safely drawn that the departing 
spirit does in fact come into the presence of those it has 
loved in life, and sees them while in most cases it is not 
seen. 

10. When it is seen by a living person the latter is un- 
doubtedly acutely developed in the subconscious faculty. 
But there is rarely if ever any appearance to those who pro- 
fess to believe in spiritualism. 

11. It may be assumed that the soul visits in a small 
space of time many places where it has lived and many per- 
sons it has known. 

The use of words is rare in such phenomena. 

Some have claimed to have heard the well known voice ; 
but we have not found an instance of the combination of 
sight and sound. The spoken words are connected with 
dreams rather than with waking hours. The psychic law 
states that the soul does not employ the language of the 
human voice of flesh; and this law has been made in order 
to prevent the openness of knowledge that would follow if it 
were possible for the mind of a person to know the thoughts 
of all other persons. 

If you knew everything that was in the minds of other 
people, and they knew all that was in your mind, life on 
earth would be suddenly transformed into a paradise of per- 
fection, for wrong would cease in the instant. Sin and 
crime cannot exist in openness of knowledge. 

It is because nature intends that a free mind and a volun- 
tary virtue shall be developed in the life of every human 



74 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

being, that a wall is built up between the conscious and the 
subconscious minds, and the language of one shall not be 
the language of the other. 

This being true, it follows that the spirit must be de- 
prived of the speech of humanity. 

Sounds, vibrations and various kinds of plrysical demon- 
strations have attended the flight of the soul ; but never 
long after the death of the body. 

In a few cases other senses have been employed. 

A woman who was exceedingly fond of one kind of rose 
relates a very strong manifestation that involved the use of 
the sense of smell. Her husband was more than a thou- 
sand miles away, and was killed in an accident. He had 
been in the habit of bringing her bouquets of the roses that 
pleased her so much. During his absence she had not had 
them, nor had one been in the house. One evening she 
turned sharply about in her chair and inquired who had 
brought those beautiful roses into the room. 

" I was just about to ask you that question," was the 
statement of the person addressed. 

They were indeed very fragrant, but could not be found. 
The wife declared that she knew they were somewhere in 
the room, and a search was made, but the intensity grew more 
and more, while not a sign of a flower could be found. At 
length they traced the odor to a certain place on the dresser 
where a small photograph of the husband was standing in a 
metal frame. 

There was no mistaking the fragrance and the variety of 
rose from which it seemed to emanate. There was no ces- 
sation that evening of the odor; nor the next day. Think- 
ing that it might be some form of deception in which the 
senses of two persons were duped, the wife called in ten 
friends the next day, one at a time, and said nothing to any 
of them on the subject in mind. As each entered the house 
the fragrance was at once noticed, and generally commented 
upon, as it filled the house, although its intensity was con- 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 75 

fined to one place. She even had the visitors go to the 
room and locate the place where it seemed to be strongest, 
and not one failed to do so. 

When a suggestion was made that it boded ill, the wife 
laughed down the idea. At noon of the next day the odor 
ceased as suddenly as if it had not existed at all. Not the 
remotest trace remained. In a few minutes a telegram ar- 
rived telling of the fatal accident and the time when it oc- 
curred. This was found to coincide with the time when 
the fragrance of the roses was noticed. 

So rare is such a case that this would have been disposed 
of with little credence were it not for the fact that it cre- 
ated such a stir and involved so many persons. 

Although the fact of the passage of the soul is well es- 
tablished and is believed by even the skeptics in all the 
psychical societies of the world, the further investigation of 
cases should be continued without limit, as too much testi- 
mony cannot be had on the subject. We hope that all 
members of the Psychic Society will participate in furnish- 
ing authentic accounts of such phenomena, provided per- 
sonal knowledge and not hearsay is made the basis of all 
statements. It should be the duty of the member to sift 
by the most rigid methods all stories of such manifestations, 
and enter into a personal investigation of the happenings. 

Much depends on the degree of development of a person 
in the use of the subconscious faculty, in his or her power to 
receive manifestations. It has been stated by a keen ob- 
server that, when more people are able to employ that 
faculty, then more evidence will be forthcoming on this 
subject; for, with subconscious eyes, everything in the uni- 
verse can be seen with absolute clearness. 

The truth is wanted at all times. 

If the Psychic Society can be the means of stimulating the 
determination to secure the truth and nothing but the truth, 
half the mysteries of life will have been driven away. 

When spirits are supposed to hold communications with 



76 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the living, it is done as has been stated through the agency 
of mediums; and here the subconscious faculty of the medi- 
ums are employed, if they are genuine. About one in a 
thousand is reliable. But no medium professes to know 
what occurs during the trance. The natural voice speaks, 
and natural agencies write or otherwise carry on the com- 
munication. This is a translation of the psychic into the 
ordinary, with the mind of the medium a blank, although 
that mind receives the messages. 

Such a combination is both inconvenient and unsavory. 

On the other hand, the clear mind of the person visited 
receives the communication or witnesses the vision ; thus tak- 
ing away the argument that the manifestation are subcon- 
scious impressions made by the dying person on the mind 
of the recipient, and not the actual spirit on its journey. 

Here is the pivotal point in this study. 

To settle all doubt every member of the Psychic Society 
should aid us in following out all evidence to the farthest 
extreme, for it means much to every living person. 

Some clearly presented facts have been secured which 
make it positive to our minds that the soul does in reality 
take its flight. There is evidence of a progressive condi- 
tion. 

The man who was hurt and so appeared, and whose head 
was bandaged as was shown in his second appearance, and 
who afterwards showed his face radiant and out of pain, 
certainly proved that the soul was progressive. If this is 
true, then the subconscious impression was proof of the 
existence of the soul. 

A person who is alive can make a subconscious impression 
on any other person at any distance. But after death such 
power ceases. This law is well established. 

The vision of a person hurt or in trouble, which is so 
common as to attract little wonder now-a-days, is a pre- 
monition in the form of a subconscious picture or impression. 
It can only be made by the living on the living. Never has 



THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 77 

there been an instance of a dead person impressing a living 
being, except under the laws of the passage of the soul. All 
impressions after death must come from the vitality that has 
left the body, and that is the immortal part of it. 

To discuss this subject thoroughly would invite into this 
work another volume several times the size of this book. 
Any reader who is anxious to go more deeply into it, is re- 
ferred to the higher systems that deal with the laws and 
their proofs in a most convincing manner. 

In closing this chapter we again repeat that the skeptics 
who are connected with the various psychical societies have 
been converted absolutely to the belief in the fact that there 
is a spirit in the human body, which separates from it at the 
moment of death, and takes its journey over the world and 
out into space, never again to return. 

This view is in accord with all the highest forms of re- 
ligion throughout the earth. On the other hand the be- 
liever in spiritualism, or the continuous power of the dead 
to communicate with the living, is regarded as the enemy of 
the church and the adherent to a false religion. These 
views have been submitted to the leading men in all the 
great denominations, and they are heartily endorsed. It is 
a satisfaction to be in harmony with the leading thought of 
the best minds on earth to-day. 

The conclusions reached after the examination of thou- 
sands of cases on this branch of the work of the Psychic 
Society, were all agreed to without in any way seeking light 
from the advanced systems of study on the same subject, to 
which reference is made in the latter part of this volume. 
Thus two roads that pass through entirely different realms, 
converge and come together at the end. Thus double proof 
of the existence and habits of the soul is secured. 

The third great highway of satisfying evidence on the 
same subject is found in the religions of the civilized world. 
These have not been consulted in the investigations, for the 
Society desired to prove its way by the fixed laws of life. 



78 



CHAPTERXI. 

• '.", i r i . . i* i i i i . i . iTiTiTiTi i.i.iii . i i i i TiTi iTi ' 

T 

BREAKING THROUGH. 




VERYWHERE we see evidences of the 
psychic breaking through the physical. Of 
this there is not the slightest doubt. If it 
were not true there would be no evidence ob- 
tainable by the aid of the physical senses. A 
vision must affect the sense of sight, or it would 
not be seen. It is a well understood fact that 
the psychical world has. its own methods of speech and these, 
for good reasons, are not capable of being interpreted into 
the physical world so as to be recognized by any of the five 
senses. 

But some few thoughts and transactions break through at 
times, with the result that the physical senses are shocked 
by what is seen or experienced. If you should see your 
friend whom you know to be a thousand or more miles away, 
coming toward you with extended hand, you would be sur- 
prised. The psychic realm has broken through your sense 
of sight and the result startles you. Were such an experi- 
ence to happen very often, you would cease to find it amaz- 
ing. 

As the sense of sight is founded on ether waves, and as 
the psychic processes are wholly originated in such waves, 
it is natural that the vision should be the agency by which 
the psychic should break through. Sound is founded on 
waves of air, or vibrations of air masses. For this reason, it 
is not possible for ethereal life to make itself manifest to the 
hearing. 

It will be noted that there is no reliable evidence of a 



BREAKING THROUGH 79 

manifestation occurring by the use of sound or touch. 
Every man and woman should understand this law. 

If you hear sounds, be sure they are the result of the cre- 
ations of your nervous system acting on the brain, or else 
are produced by mechanical magnetism, as explained in 
books on that subject. 

If you feel touches, or imagine that you see things move, 
or if they in fact do move, you should be certain that they 
are mechanical or magnetic. 

A highly magnetized man or woman is able to suspend 
the law of gravity, or to cause substances of great weight 
to move easily, or produce sounds of a certain character ; 
but such individuals are rare, and their work is the result of 
a special gift. This book does not devote itself to that line 
of investigation, as it belongs to the magnetism series. 

Gravity itself is merely one form of magnetism. 

Touch is the action of substance. 

Sound is the action of molecules, generally of the air. 

Sight is the action of ether waves. 

If manifestations come in sleep that carry with them the 
sensations of sound and touch, they are purely dreams, in 
which of course no sound or touch actually occurs. But 
if visions come in dreams they may be borne on ether waves, 
and prove genuine, or be the result of imaginings. 

It is satisfying to the mind of the investigator, to learn 
that there is a uniformity of proof showing that all reliable 
psychic phenomena is confined solely to visions, or the use 
of the sense of sight. 

No dependence should be placed in manifestations of sound 
or touch. The sense of smell is supposed to be etheral, but 
the proofs are not fully convincing. Here the Society has 
work to do to follow out such claims as may be made on 
this subject. 

The laws of light and of ether are stated in the next di- 
vision of this book, and they will furnish interesting reading 
on the problems that confront humanity in this era. 



80 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Thought is known also to be the action of the waves of 
ether. 

Subconscious thought belongs to the psychic mind. 

As is stated later on, it cannot be translated into the 
language of earth, for the reasons given ; but it breaks 
through at times and takes on the ideas and some of the 
words and phrases that are employed in earthly or physical 
communication. 

A spirit, if one existed, would find it impossible to actually 
use the words of our physical speech. This leads to the 
conclusion that all spoken and written words and sentences 
are imaginations or assumptions. 

We think in two channels. 

In one we employ the words and ideas of the physical 
world. 

In the other we are in the psychic world, but prevented 
from crystallizing the thoughts into physical speech, and for 
the following reasons: 

Thought employs ether waves. 

Speech employs physical agencies only, as the sound of 
passing air, the articulation of consonants, and the framing 
of letters by physical shapes. Thus a barrier is placed be- 
tween thought and speech, except that division of thought 
which uses the substances of life to make sound and shape 
for words and letters. 

Ether waves have a double function. They give light to 
the world, and they give thought to the world. They span 
two worlds; for they give material senses their light and 
thought, and are hidden from us in their psychic processes 
except when they break through the barrieres. 



SECOND GRAND DIVISION 

OF 

UNSEEN POWERS 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF 

PROOFS FURNISHED BY 
PSYCHIC PROCESSES 



Si 



82 



A LESSON IN REVIEW. 

Once reading a work of this character is not by any means 
enough. The review of the first chapter is recommended, 
and several re-readings will prove of great advantage. Even 
the memorizing of the twenty-four propositions of that 
chapter will furnish an abiding power to the true student. 

Then it must be borne in mind that the division of the 
human mind into physical and psychic departments is now 
recognized as a proved fact. No intelligent person doubts 
it. 

The body that is made of earth is physical and perishable ; 
but the life that is psychic is immortal. This proposition 
cannot be proved in the scope of this work; but some of 
the laws that attend its unfolding are set forth in the present 
volume. 

The physical mind dies, but does not always pass away 
with the death of the physical body. It hovers like a wan- 
dering ball of intelligence, occasionally sending back reports 
of itself, until it finally vanishes. 

Manifestations supposed to include visitations or messages 
from departed spirits are now known to be reflected telep- 
athic impressions left in the minds of those who are still 
alive; or else wireless responses from wandering intelligences 
of people who have since died; or finally the creations of 
abnormal brain-cells. 

While the psychic world is more and more breaking down 
the barriers that separate it from the physical world, every 
unusual occurrence must not be accepted as psychic. The 
physical senses are often deceived in the most amazing man- 
ner. It is the purpose of this book to make clear the differ- 
ence between the psychic and that which seems to be psychic ; 
and for this reason the reader should not adopt fixed beliefs 
without carefully considering every phase of the great ques- 
tion. 



83 



CHAPTER XII. 




I ON THE THRESHOLD. f 

^ v. ' "SB 



EFORE ENTERING into the direct work 
of the Second Division of this book it is im- 
portant that the reader should understand the 
different nature of the laws that are to claim 
our attention. As a special preparation for 
the study now ahead of us, all persons who 
own the books referred to in the early chap- 
ter entitled, Sources of Help, are asked to refresh their 
minds with the principles and facts there presented, ac- 
companied by the long lines of proofs on every hand. To 
encumber this volume with that matter would add thou- 
sands of pages in repetition. 

It will be seen that there are two worlds; one is the 
physical and the other the psychic. 

The former is born in earth and is made of earth. The 
intelligence that is everywhere seen in matter, is that which 
only contact with experiences of earth can develop. There- 
fore it must have such senses as are useful for a form of 
life on this planet. Hearing, taste, smell and touch, can- 
not possibly be born unless used, and they grow only as 
they are used. 

Sight as we see it with the eyes, is merely a fragment of 
the action of the ether waves, as it shows us nothing but 
the surface of things. In order to successfully exist amid 
the dangers and vicissitudes of this world, we should have 
the power to view what is about us of a physical character. 
Hence part of the function of the ether process of sight is 
given to humanity. It shows only what is on the surface, 



84 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

a thin layer so small that its thickness is nothing as meas- 
ured by physical standards. What is known as transparent 
matter, is only an arrangement of molecules that permits 
the light to pass through unheeded; but, even then, the sur- 
face of the molecules is all that can be seen. 

True ether waves with the psychic vision, know no more 
of surfaces than they do of the whole inward structure of 
substances. 

Sight also acts on matter only. 

In the psychic world what is now for convenience called 
sight, acts as the whole channel of knowledge. 

The first division of the present book is devoted to the 
study of proofs that are furnished by the physical senses. 
It is supposed that what we see must be a fact. The 
chapter on Premonitions will explain to what extent that is 
true. The same subject is also treated in other chapters 
of the First Division. 

Many persons are convinced that what they hear must 
be true, as far as the sound is concerned. " If I hear a 
knock at the door of my room, I know that some one or 
something caused it or executed it," says the practical 
man. The chapter on Sounds in the First Division will 
make clear how much or how little value can be attached 
to the noises that enter the brain. The same is true of 
touch. Smell and taste do not often enter into the phe- 
nomena, although there are a few remarkable cases that 
have been investigated. 

To sum up the First Division it may be said that an 
immense mass of testimony has been received, and that the 
physical senses, chiefly the sense of sight, can be credited 
with furnishing proofs of the fact that the psychic world is 
seeking all the time to break through into the physical 
world ; and, as it can come only by employing the senses, 
the latter must be depended on to furnish the facts. 

On the other hand all intelligent men have come to 
agree that there is a faculty or series of faculties that man- 



ON THE THRESHOLD 85 

ifest themselves through other agencies than the physical 
senses. They refer to such faculty as some power that 
either has had its sway and is dying out, or that is yet to 
make itself known more and more as the progress of the 
universe is maintained. Everything is improving, earth, 
suns, planets, stars, and the great communion of distant 
worlds. All are tending to some grand finale. 

What we of earth want to know is the facts. 

We want a practical knowledge of the facts. 

We seek the truth, not as served to us by some thin- 
brained theorist, or flimsy cult; but the solid truth, strong, 
provable, knowable, honest and full of the meat of fact from 
center to circumference. 

There is not a sensible man or woman on the earth to- 
day who would not gladly welcome the truth, if he or she 
could be convinced that it is the truth and nothing else. 

Enough has already been ascertained and depicted in the 
First Division of this book to show beyond all doubt that 
there is a psychic world. This is the basis of further in- 
vestigation. Here we have an acknowledged fact to begin 
with. Let every step of the way be as sure and as solid 
as the start. 

Laws and principles are evolved and proved as they come 
to light.. 

For instance, it is well known that the light of the 
universe travels along the ether, and is the vibration of the 
ether itself. Here is another fact of prime importance. 

In the use of the physical senses, it has been clearly 
shown that manifestations of the psychic world are not able 
to break through except by the aid of light; and they ap- 
pear, when genuine, only as visions, never by sound or 
touch. This confirms the law that the psychic is ethereal, 
and that light is the connecting link between the two 
worlds. 

Then it has been absolutely established by the aid of the 
physical senses that there is such a power as telepathy. It 



86 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

may be said that no person of intelligence denies this to-day, 
unless he has been excluded by circumstances from the facts 
that are everywhere known. When, in the years gone by, 
so many hard-headed, practical men entered into the psy- 
chical societies in all civilized countries, fixed in their be- 
liefs that telepathy was not a fact, and they have all changed 
their views and not known it to be a fact, there is nothing 
left for proof as to this law. 

Telepathy is of two classes: 

It is physical when it reveals facts related to physical life. 

It is psychic when it reveals facts related to psychic life. 

Both kinds of telepathy can be cultivated, but not easily, 
if one expects to interpret psychic thoughts into physical 
words. Here some power has placed a barrier in order 
that destiny might not be known in advance of its fulfilment. 

Already it has been seen that proofs are accumulating that 
satisfy the most skeptical minds, and they are so satisfying 
them to-day by the thousands. 

Long ago it was supposed that hypnotism and magnetism 
were the same processes. Now it is established that hypno- 
tism is a power that acts on certain subjects, putting them 
into a cataleptic sleep, and deadening their physical faculties 
only to awaken the same faculties into an obedience to the 
suggestions of another. 

It is also now established that magnetism awakens all 
persons whom it touches; the used and the user. It is an 
inspiration to all who are acted upon. Whereas hypnotism 
leaves its subject poorer in will and meaner m character, 
magnetism makes its subject a nobler, grander being. Mag- 
netism does not win by subduing, but by imparting a better 
life and a better will. Take away personal magnetism from 
the minister, and he cannot uplift his hearers. He cannot 
encourage chem. He cannot give them his genuine sympathy. 
He cannot arouse them to new ambitions and efforts to win 
success in life or salvation for eternity. 

The more magnetism that the preacher possesses, the more 



ON THE THRESHOLD 87 

good he will accomplish, the more men and women he will 
save, and the more rewards he will earn for himself. If 
he lacks magnetism, he has no right to preach. But if he 
were to hypnotize his hearers, he would put them to sleep 
and make them useless timber for the church. 

It is only in recent years that people have came to under- 
stand the difference between magnetism and hypnotism. It 
is well that they now know. 

Personal magnetism acts on ether waves, as is clearly 
shown in the systems of training; but it acts on physical 
life, and for the purposes of helping such existence. In 
advance magnetism, the power extends itself into the psychic 
world, and in universal magnetism it makes one great com- 
munity of all the worlds in space, including even the 
minutest detail of human life. 

Proofs of these powers are found in the remarkable re- 
sults they achieve. 

It is important that the double-functions of the leading 
powers be seen ; among them the following being closer to 
the investigations of the Psychic Society: 

1. Light has a double- function ; it is the agency of the 
psychic world, and also the only method known to the 
physical senses whereby proof of the former world is made 
manifest to the physical world. 

2. Telepathy has a double-function ; it reveals the hid- 
den knowledge of the physical world, and gives glimpses of 
the psychic world. It has the greatest immediate future of 
any power in all the universe. It can be examined under 
accurate laws that leave no doubt of its certainty as a 
power. 

3. Magnetism has a double-function; and reaches farther 
than any other known agency. It furnishes a vast fund of 
proof for the investigator into the psychic world. 

4. The double-functions of the unseen powers are proof 
of the law that the psychic extends into the physical world ; 
and this is what humanity needs most to know. 



88 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Having thus come to the threshold of proof along the 
higher lines of investigation, we will now deal with laws 
and principles rather than with evidences furnished by the 
senses. A law is something greater than a fact. It stands 
out immutable and eternal, surviving the wreck of change, 
and pointing the way to the realm of fixed facts and truths. 



8 9 



CHAPTER XIII. 



^KTrvivivi v i v ■■( v < v ivwivi. iviviv i v ~t ,1,1 ^ ivivi"i ^ i~iTiTi"i~" ~ "i~ ~iT<Ti vl\7i~iN/i~ 
Si 




THE UNSEEN POWERS. 

,l»lvl.lvlvlvl,lvl,lvl. l ...l,lvl,l.l.l,KI,l,,.l,l.l ,.,,1,'l.i.WI J1T1 * 



RRIVING NOW at the first realm of the 
newly discovered world, we find it necessary 
to understand what powers are unseen and 
what influences are holding sway in the sight- 
less air about us. An unhealthy mind conjures 
up all sorts of goblins and fearful spirits; and 
the brain can create almost everything it fears. 
A wholesome, sane, normal mind, has no fancies that are mor- 
bid. To it all things are clean and free from apprehension. 
It is the purpose of this book to destroy fear and superstition. 
Let us start by studying the following group of the un- 
seen powers and influences that surround life or exist about 
us somewhere; beginning at the Supreme Being, and drop- 
ping step by step from Him, as we descend. 
i. GOD. 

2. HEAVEN. 

3. RELIGION. 

4. INSPIRATION. 

5. GENIUS. 

6. UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM. 

7. PSYCHIC TELEPATHY. 

8. INTUITION. 

9. INSTINCT. 

io. PHYSICAL MAGNETISM. 
ii. PHYSICAL TELEPATHY. 

12. HYPNOTISM. 

13. SUPERSTITION. 

14. DEMONS. 




go 



CHAPTER XIV. 

I GOD. 1 

I 1 



HERE IS A LIVING GOD whose pres- 
ence fills the universe. Of this fact there is no 
doubt. No person can study psychic telepathy 
jor universal magnetism and have any misgiv- 
ings as to the existence of a living, ever-present 
Supreme Being. It is not our purpose to 
enter into the discussion of this assertion. 
There has not been a nation or people since first the world 
began, who has not been reaching out after the Divine in 
response to the psychic longings within the human breast; 
and that which is longed for or hoped for, exists somewhere. 
But this line of argument is speculative, and does not 
suit the methods of this book. The point we make is 
that the existence of God is a generally accepted fact. 
Further than this, it is also a proved fact. 
LAW. — God is a multiple being. 

He is not a giant of undue and inharmonious proportions 
with the rest of creation ; but is omnipresent by reason of the 
fact that His personality is multiple. It may occupy every 
one of the countless worlds in space. It may be present in 
many parts of the same world, and so exist without limita- 
tion. 

There is no doubt that God is seen and known in all 
the worlds of the universe except the earth. 

The best conception of Him that is obtainable from any 
source, whether religious or psychic, may be had by a careful 
analysis of the Bible, as far as it shows His character and 
purposes. It also discloses in wonderful review the many- 



GOD 91 

sided nature of humanity in the midst of temptations, doubts 
and struggles that were titanic. 

It is not possible to obtain a knowledge of God by the 
mere use of the reasoning faculties. They are born of 
physical parentage, and God is wholly apart from that 
realm, both as to His being and His mode of dealing with 
humanity. Yet it is true that, as we catch glimpses of the 
psychic through the material realm, so we see the plan of 
God at times in the creation about us. 

In the study of the idea of sex nature, it is shown that 
all the universe and all life of every kind is sexed. God 
is the Father, and is so known. Nature is the Mother, and 
she has always been referred to by that term. The physical 
construction of the universe is the product of the union be- 
tween God and Nature. This Mother of us all is physical 
life in all its processes. 

LAW. — Nature is a conscious personality knoiving hu- 
manity in its smallest and its greatest needs. 

LAW. — The product of Nature is humanity with its 
physical and psychic possibilities. 




9 2 



CHAPTER XV. 

• ,' . . . , I . I I I I I 1 I I I . I I . . . , I i , I I I .Ivl yl~.C!~l"l~l~<~l\7(ViVi\ 

HEAVEN. 



ROM THE REMOTEST era all peoples 
'have believed in a place of abode after death; 
and it is not surprising that their belief was 
colored by their grades of civilization. The 
f higher the scale of intelligence rose, the nobler 
became their conception of heaven. Nothing 
reflects better the character of a people than 
their views of the hereafter. As reason grew apace, some 
minds thought that the will should be unchained, and its 
flights given free wing. This plunged us into an era of 
skepticism, using the term in its sense of relationship to the 
prevailing religion. 

Laying aside all influences that come from such sources, 
whether for or against a belief in heaven, we come to the 
direct proofs furnished by psychic telepathy, universal mag- 
netism, and the efforts of the psychic world to break through 
the ordinary senses. 

LAW. — Nothing is lost, wasted, or in vain. 
The sky is full of worlds. They are called suns because 
they give out original light, or light of their own. Each 
sun has planets, as our own sun has; and each planet has 
satellites, as our earth has. Some scientists regard space as 
having no limit. Some think that all the sky is inhabited 
with stars which are parts of a great mass of matter; and 
that we are insects crawling on grains of sand, of which 
the earth is a very small individual. 
This view is incorrect. 
In the use of the microscope we get very close to the 



HEAVEN 93 

atoms which compose the sunlight, showing the limit of 
creation in that direction. From the atom everything be- 
gins. 

LAW. — Ether fills all occupied space in the sky. 

This atmosphere which is now known everywhere as 
ether, is the sunlight that has gone forth as rays, in lines 
of atoms. The sky is filled with it, as far as the sky is 
occupied. There is a limited number of worlds, even 
though they are seemingly countless and amaze the math- 
ematician by their vastness of size and endless procession. 
Where the worlds end, there the ether ends. All else is 
nothing. 

LAW. — Light is an impulse that vibrates the ether 
throughout all the occupied realms of the sky. 

In the beginning the suns went forth. Then they sent 
out their flaming light. This light, finding space unoc- 
cupied, took possession of it, until all was filled with ether. 
Since then the impulses of light vibrate the ether that oc- 
cupies space, taking the place of all is woven into worlds. 
The process of world-building is part of our higher system 
of training, known as philosophy. 

LAW. — A psychic impulse travels faster than a wave of 
light. 

It requires but a few minutes for an impulse of light to 
journey from the sun to the earth, more than ninety millions 
of miles. 

LAW. — Light is material. 

In fact the ether is material, and really physical, but we 
fall partly into line with others who assert that it is super- 
natural, for we take the word itself as the key to the 
proper term to be applied. 

We call light material, and yet it furnishes the medium 
whereby all ethereal life travels or exists. There is noth- 
ing smaller than an atom of light. A body of air is ma- 
terial, yet sound travels on it by using the mass for the 
purposes of vibration. Sound is not air, and air need not 



94 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

have any motion whatever, yet sound moves along its 
mass at a rate of speed that is inconceivable when compared 
with any form of physical motion. 

Light occupies several minutes of time in coming a dis- 
tance of ninety millions of miles. Air may move at the 
rate of a hundred miles an hour or even faster than that, 
although it keeps within a more reasonable rate of speed 
most of the time. Sound which is the vibration of a body of 
air, travels so much faster than the gale, or air-body itself, 
that it cannot be compared to it. Yet sound is not air. 

We now see that the occupied space of the sky is filled 
with worlds sailing in a sea of ether, and that this ether 
is the medium of communication from world to world, just 
as the ocean enables man to have converse with the conti- 
nents and islands of earth, and air gives him the promise of 
other triumphs. 

The law tells us that nothing is lost, nothing is wasted, 
and nothing is in vain. In fact there is no way of losing 
anything. The substance of the sun goes forth as atomic 
matter, but it cannot get lost, not even if it strays billions 
of miles off. Magnetism holds it in leash. Every atom 
must be accounted for, and there are more billions of atoms 
in a drop of water than you could count in ten billion cen- 
turies, if you counted a billion every second of the time. 
Here we have an example of infinitude. 

LAW. — Every world in the sky is the abode of created 
beings. 

Nothing is lost. Nothing is in vain. Nothing is useless. 

Every atom has its use. 

As out of the abundance of earth each and every particle 
is made to serve some useful purpose, so all the worlds in 
the sky contribute to the service of the Creator and the be- 
ings that are subject to His rule. The idea of orbs that 
are dead and dried up, or that have cooled off and are no 
longer useful, is erroneous, as it is contradicted by every 
known principle of creation. 



HEAVEN 95 

LAW. — Beautiful worlds are the abodes and visiting 
places of the psychic body. 

What earth is, will be seen later in this book. 

It was once supposed that our planet was the center of 
the sky, that the sun revolved around it, that the stars 
were made for no other purpose than to give light on nights 
when the moon was away, and that heaven was above the 
earth. 

The fact is that we are some distance away from the 
center of the universe, but not relatively far ofr. What is 
called the milky way holds the central orbs. But the best 
telescope ever made cannot peer within its courts. 

As the miscroscope becomes a confused mass when it 
reaches its utmost power of magnifying, so the telescope 
gives nothing but a blur just when we think that we can 
look in upon Mars, the most favored of all the heavenly 
bodies for our study. To combat this difficulty the inge- 
nuity of inventive man has conceived the idea of taking 
photographic views of that planet, and then magnifying those 
views, again photographing, until at last we can see an ob- 
ject on Mars as big as the head of a pin, and read the facial 
expression on the nearest inhabitant. But the barrier is 
purposely placed against such discovery. 

No physical invention will look upon any star or orb and 
reveal the life that dwells there. 

It is a psychic existence. 

The study of the planet Mars discloses canals that change 
their shape and conditions twice a year, as though beings 
were working on them. A plausible account of the purpose 
involved in such operations makes it look as if there might be 
people there who take advantage of the peculiar seasons in 
order to raise vegetation, which it is claimed appears every 
summer in the warm portions of the orb. But the best 
astronomers refuse to advance such theory and merely say 
that not enough is known to warrant the suggestion that 
there is any life on Mars. 



96 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Other planets are given special seasons and habits, owing 
to their varying relationship to the sun. One has eternal 
summer throughout one great zone, with eternal winter on 
the extremes. It is as though we lived in Canada in an 
endless January, and others lived in New York in an endless 
June, while others lived in Florida in an endless August. 

Another planet gives one-half of itself to constant winter 
and another half to constant summer. So they change to 
set up variety. No two are alike, and each has some distinct 
characteristic that marks it as specially arranged for life on 
its surface. 

The one law of variety alone gives certainty that a pur- 
pose is involved in the plan of creation. What is true of 
one orb is true of all the suns and all their planets and 
attendant globes. Each world is different from all others. 

This variation is intended to bring an endless succession of 
glories to the psychic body when, once it is set free from the 
bondage of earth. 

LAW. — Heaven includes all the universe beyond the 
earth. 

God is an unseen power. There may have been good men 
who have looked upon Him or some one of His multiple 
personality, but they are not living to-day. 

Heaven is an unseen power. It is not only the places of 
abode and visitation, but the peoples that are there. They 
exert in some way an influence over the better part of human 
nature on earth. 




97 



CHAPTER XVI. 

I RELIGION. 

"f.i.ivivi.ivivUvivMviv ~ ~ ~~~ ~t ~ t ~ ~ (Tn iTiri~ r ~i <r. <~ t.~ ~i\7Krftn • 



ITH THE FIRST COMING of human 
families on earth, there arose the question, 
What becomes of our loved ones when they 
die? That inquiry of itself is enough to give 
s s rise to every religion on the face of the globe. 
The desire to live, the dread of death, and the 
hope of continued existence, make it easy for 
any leader among a people to frame the tenets of a religion 
and find followers until something better is offered. 
Death is both mysterious and alarming. 
Sadness, grief, the fear of dark agencies, the high tension 
of the nervous system among the ignorant classes, all make 
religion a natural offering from those who are able to take 
the leadership. Strong men and all women lean to the 
hope that religion gives. So pleasing is it in the minds of 
certain peoples that death is welcomed rather than feared 
because of the prospect of greater happiness forthwith. 
Any motive that will urge one to court death on the promise 
of happiness in another world, is a religious disease ; for it 
invites suicide, and suicide is death to the psychic body, and 
to hope hereafter. 

Instinct is one of the unseen powers. 
It cannot tell a lie. When its meaning is fully under- 
stood, what it has to say in its way is the truth. 

There are grades of instinct running the gamut from the 

realm of the lower animals to that of the highest genius in 

man. In all normal hearts there is the instinct for a true 

religion. It is not only inborn but is a part of the existence 

7 



98 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of the psychic nature in the human body. Death excites and 
inspires it among those who survive and is made an agency 
for just such purposes; in the same way that love inspires 
and excites the function that reproduces the race. 

The one purpose of any religion is to set the soul free 
from the bondage of earth. The method by which it sets 
the soul free is in making it worthy to pass on to other 
worlds in the sky, and thus to enter heaven. 

Hope is a form of religious instinct. So is faith. So is 
the longing for a life hereafter. So are all the teachings 
and doctrines that actually make man stop before he commits 
crime and realize that there is a God that sees him and that 
will leave him to a dreaded fate if he goes wrong. 

The function of religion is to destroy the feeling of se- 
curity in wrong doing. When any man or woman feels safe 
in such acts as are prohibited in the code of an upright life, 
then religion is lacking. When the sense of security is 
present because no one is looking, then there is no religion. 

From a scientific standpoint the definition of religion is 
that it is the highest ethical instinct in the human heart seek- 
ing a code that will compel each individual to stop before he 
commits crime, that will show him the ever-present Eye of 
the Creator looking down into his heart, that will rescue 
him from the sway of temptation and give him clear passage 
to another world if death were to come unannounced. 



99 




CHAPTER XVII. 

<f ?fTt~iT >T iTi" t .TlT.Ti '- l.l»l.lvl.l-ivlvivl.KI,lvi\I.KI,I.IVl/l.l,IVlvlvl VtViViX/JS, 

I INSPIRATION. 1 

/J~l\?~i~ TiT.TiTiT." i. i,ivi\ i~~.~iX.i~i~i~.TiT.Tit . . ,k . yivi «. ...i ^v i^iv.n/In/i - Jvfs?<\ 

OWEVER HUMBLE the mind or heart 
may be, no person is denied the power that 
comes from inspiration. There are several 
grades of this faculty. Like instinct it appears 
in the lowly and in the highborn, in the lesser 
scale of life and in the greatest ranks of intel- 
ligence. It often takes the place of education, 
as in the case of Shakespeare. How any lad who had not 
been taught enough to have given him qualification to enter 
the first schools of our day could become master of the 
English language and set the pace for the grandest geniuses 
to follow through endless generations, is hard to understand. 
A person is inspired when he receives help from the 
psychic world, no matter whether or not he hears any voice, 
or sees any visions or comes in contact with any other being ; 
it is enough if he is given knowledge or power. 

Like instinct, inspiration will not mislead or falsify. 
Were it not for the facts that are breathed into the minds 
of the lower animals, all would perish. Birds know when 
to go south and when to come north, when to build and 
where to make their stay. Many of the smaller quadrupeds 
lay by their stock of food for the winter, and perform deeds 
that excite the admiration of human beings; acts that are 
not told them by their parents, for there are countless cases 
where the young have been orphaned at birth, and yet have 
taken up instinctively the methods that are necessary to 
sustain life. A person who has not studied the habits of the 
animals will be surprised at the many acts of a superior in- 



ioo THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

telligence they perform, outwitting man both in skill and 
cunning. As they have had no one to teach them, it must 
follow that they are given knowledge by a psychic power 
which for convenience is called instinct. 

This power does not lie. 

It is keener than most persons believe. The more it is 
studied the greater becomes its wonders, and the more re- 
spect one has for it. To the unobservant mind it is almost 
nothing. We recall the case of a man of great intelligence 
who asked to be advised how to cultivate a belief in some 
unseen power, no matter what it was, so that it was genuine ; 
and we asked him to make a persistent and exhaustive study 
of instinct in all the uses that he could ascertain. In other 
words, to make a long and thorough investigation into its 
operations from its humblest acts to its greatest. 

At first he hesitated on the ground that the scope was too 
limited to afford deep study. But he started in, and soon 
was absorbed in the unfolding fields of labor before him. 
Acts, deeds, transactions, wonderful habits and traits, all 
held him spellbound for months. At last he wrote us as 
follows : " I find that instinct is indeed an unseen power, 
and I lift my hat to it with the deepest worship. No law 
of nature can account for the specific acts of high intelligence 
that I have met in my researches. At times I have felt 
sure that I am putting my hand in God's own hand and 
being led into a belief in His personal presence; but I have 
decided that He consigns to other powers each department 
of His government. I would like to publish a book of in- 
stinct by which I might tell the world the miracles that it 
knows nothing about. In closing I wish to say that this 
power is not a thing to be theorized over. It is a fact all 
the way along. It is as plain as the sun in the heavens. Its 
methods are convincing. They prove that we exist in the 
midst of an unseen government, to deny which is the highest 
evidence of an unfolded mind. I did deny it once, and I 
deserve censure for it." 



INSPIRATION 101 

The knowledge that instinct furnishes is most amazing in 
its volume and power. The things that it tells are draughts 
from the psychic world. 

Rising to higher gifts, a new power dawns on the horizon. 
It is inspiration. It is all the time knocking at the door 
of every life where it is likely to receive the slightest wel- 
come. 

All the worthy battles of the world have been planned 
and won by the aid of inspiration. 

All the deeds that have set on the tide of progress have 
had their origin in this unseen power. 

Without inspiration everything is ordinary. It follows 
the humdrum of a daily physical existence. It is work with- 
out reward, when it is work without inspiration. 

The inventions of the world were born in inspiration. 
The good deeds, the gifts of art, of sculpture, of painting, 
of literature, of poetry, of music, of architecture, and of all 
that draws the heart of man up nearer to heaven, are con- 
ceived in this power known as inspiration. 

As life in the body is both physical and psychic, it follows 
that the predominance of one subdues the other, and the 
subjection of one permits the other to have greater sway. 
It also follows that, when one is neglected, the other will 
seek to take its place. 

Examples of this tendency are found in the lives of those 
men who have had frail physical bodies and whose psychic 
natures have been more active in consequence. Hundreds 
of cases of the kind may be summoned at once from the 
pages of history. This shows a conformance with the gen- 
eral principle stated, and confirms the psychic law. 

The power known as inspiration can be cultivated to a 
very high degree by any person. No matter how long you 
have denied admission to your mind of this agency from 
the psychic world, it still stands at the outer door waiting 
for recognition. Its knocks will be faint or loud in pro- 
portion as you have given it entrance in the past. Whether 



102 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

you are in business, or in society, or in a profession, or at 
work for another person, there is opportunity to find aid 
from this power. 

The psychic world is seeking all the while to break through 
into your physical life. This is one of its well known and 
certain channels. It may come in the form of a valuable 
idea. Seize that at once. Go to some book and write it 
down. Do not wait one minute. Stop wherever you are, 
and secure the idea just as you received it. This has been 
the practice of the greatest men of the world. Whether 
poet, or prose writer, orator, painter, sculptor, painter, ar- 
chitect, lawyer, doctor, inventor, business man, no matter 
in what walk of life, when an idea of value comes to you, 
secure it in black and white. Longfellow, the poet, used to 
leap from his bed and note down his ideas. The same fact 
has been related of others so many times as to be a by-word 
in the class of great men. 

A strange arrangement of words, a beautifully framed 
thought, an epigram, a plan for important achievement, or 
other visit of this power should be recognized by being 
placed on paper where it may be reviewed from time to 
time. The thought of it, the seeing of it, and the repeating 
of it become stimulants to the very faculty that gave birth 
to the inspiration. The power comes more readily the next 
time, if so encouraged. There is but one way to encourage 
it, and that is by putting the facts on paper at once, and 
then keeping them in mind from time to time. 

This method has been advised in our books for more than 
a quarter of a century, and a few persons have followed it 
with stupendous success. The result is that the power of 
inspiration opens up the pages of the books of knowledge 
that are closed to all other human beings. All may be ad- 
mitted to the class of favored people who receive the rewards 
of such knowledge. You can make the effort in your own 
life, and you will soon witness the presence of the power. 

For fear that some reader may deem the task too difficult, 



INSPIRATION 163 

we wish to repeat the advice to have pencil and paper at 
hand at all times, and when any idea that seems valuable 
occurs to the mind, note it at once. Do not depend on the 
memory. \ 

The purpose of this habit is to set in motion the process 
of this unseen power. It will do it. At first the ideas 
may not seem strong or useful. No matter. Keep up the 
practice. Read over from time to time what you have writ- 
ten down. Keep them all in one book, and get them as near 
like the first impression as possible, using the same words 
that you first employed in thinking of the idea. These are 
nearest to the power itself. 

In a few months you should have hundreds of ideas that 
seemed to leap into your life. You will enjoy reviewing 
them, and will never tire of this practice, when once you 
have got it well started. 

Day by day, if you persevere, the power will grow stronger, 
especially if you have persisted in it for some months. 
Nothing can be accomplished in a day. 

We wish you to see for yourself what can be achieved in 
your life by developing this psychic power. Just for the 
sake of making the test arfd pursuing one line of worthy 
ambition, follow this to the greatest end and report to our 
Society the result. We know what will be the outcome if 
you stick to it with a dogged will. The power will grow 
and your ideas will become greater and greater until one of 
them brings you success in a degree beyond your fondest 
dreams. This fact is so easily proved that you should give it 
a fair trial. The test is within your grasp. It will cost 
you nothing. We want to know what results, as it is the 
purpose of our existence as a society to secure all the facts 
possible under each of the great unseen powers. 

It may be as an inventor that you will obtain an enormous 
fortune. It may be in some profession that you will achieve 
success. It may be in art or literature that fame will be 
won. It may be in business ventures, and they require the 



io4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

aid of inspiration and inspired ideas to bring gigantic results. 
No matter how humble you are in life at the present day, 
you will rise, rise, rise, until you hold the reins instead of 
being driven. 

This fact is as certain as that the morrow's sun will rise. 

A writer began nearly forty years ago to pursue the course 
advised in this chapter, and he was given the suggestion in 
private by one of the most famous and most successful men 
that have ever lived in America who took an interest in 
him then. He has not always obeyed the appeal of the 
power when it seemed to knock at the door of his life, but 
to a great extent he followed that advice. The result has 
been this: There are times when great facts will leap out 
of the universe upon his pen, and he will sit amazed by 
them, unwilling to give them place for fear he is drawing 
too boldly on the unseen fund. But analysis and study and 
investigation have always found these truths to be invincible. 
His works are the product of just such help, and they have 
become more and more proved as the years have advanced. 
He knows that the laws and statements made in this book 
are true. Yet many of them are ahead of the times. Proofs 
abundant have hemmed them all in on every side until the 
Society accepts them as established facts. 




105 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

| GENIUS. 1 

I I 



ESSER IN DEGREE, but none the less true 
are the evidences of power known as genius. 
Men and women, some uneducated and others 
favored with book learning, have been found 
to be geniuses. The inspired writer may re- 
veal the story of heaven told to him by an- 
gels, as occurred in the olden times. Or he 
may arise to heights of achievement in any line of life, seizing 
the thunderbolt and arresting its course on the mount of 
glory, to send it forth in the name of progress for the earth. 
A genius would not write a great poem, but he might plan 
and execute some piece of workmanship, or lead the way 
into new fields of discovery. 

The main difference between the unseen power of inspira- 
tion and the unseen power of genius is this : 

Inspiration secures knowledge, while genius executes the 
work of humanity in a better way than it has ever been 
done before. 

It may be courted or cultivated by following the sugges- 
tions and practice of the preceding chapter. 

But such suggestions belong rather to the work to be 
done than to the ideas or principles that underlie that work. 
The ability to make a perfect circle in one sweep of the 
brush shows remarkable genius in an artist, as does the 
playing of the piano in such a way as to cause the notes to 
sing. The same kind of power makes the actor a genius, 
for he does not originate the thoughts he utters. Yet he 
may achieve greatness by his interpretation. 



io6 



CHAPTER XIX. 




1 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM. 1 

I 1 



ELD TOGETHER by chains of unseen 
power all the worlds of the sky are drawn into 
a common family of relationship. Looking at 
the sun, the mind that had not studied the sub- 
ject would say at once that it had no control 
over the earth; but, when he learned that it 
was more than ninety millions of miles away, 
he would feel sure that it could not be subjected to any in- 
fluence that came from so great a distance. 

Again, when he was shown a planet that seemed so small 
an object as to have no claim whatever on his attention, and 
was told that it was more than a billion miles away from 
the sun, he would ridicule the idea of its being held tightly 
within the control of the great star that centers our system. 
Swinging out through space, retracing in their years the 
same pathway all the while, yet flying rapidly away from 
the power that binds them to their orbit, they find them- 
selves all the time coming back into subjection. 
How can this happen? 

Gravity is an unseen power. It is not a substance, any 
more than sound is a substance. By gravity the body of 
man is chained to the earth much more securely than cords 
or irons could hold him. He cannot defeat gravity, and he 
might cut the chains and ropes. 
But what is gravity? 

It has no existence except in the will of the Creator. It 
actually takes hold of nothing. The planets that are more 
than a billion miles away are tied to the sun ; yet they are 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 107 

thrown from the sun by the opposite power. What is there 
in a planet that can exert an influence through a distance of 
a billion miles, with nothing but ether between? This un- 
seen power must act on the ether and through it, as that 
medium must carry the message and execute the will of the 
power ordained. 

In ether, which penetrates every solid as easily as it per- 
meates space, there is the element that holds molecules to- 
gether in such a way that some make iron, some gold, some 
diamonds, some wood, some water, some air, and others every 
conceivable shape and substance. In ether is the element 
that generates electricity. In ether is the element that exe- 
cutes the law of gravity. In ether is the element that exe- 
cutes the law of magnetism. In ether is the element that 
reaches out through infinite space and holds worlds to- 
gether. Neptune is as closely bound to the sun as is Venus 
or Mercury. 

This is the power of magnetism. 

As far as ether extends through space, so far does it carry 
the influences known as magnetism and telepathy; and it 
reaches to all the worlds that exist in the sky. No one can 
deny that there is such a power as gravity or attraction that 
is exerted for more than a billion miles in our solar system. 
This fact is elementary. It shows in the simplest form one 
of the unseen powers that are at work. Yet gravity is a 
division of magnetism. The following principles will help 
to give a clear understanding of this quality of the psychic 
world : 

1. What is known as magnetism is power. 

2. Magnetism is the opposite of hypnotism. 

3. There are two classes of magnetism: the physical and 
the psychic. 

4. Physical magnetism includes the power of action, 
thought and feeling. 

5. Psychic magnetism is the power that rules all subcon- 
scious existence. 



io8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

6. It is by magnetism that growth of every kind takes 
place. 

7. It is by magnetism that gravity, cohesion, adhesion, 
and other forces operate. 

8. It is by magnetism that the earth is held in the solar 
system, and yet is kept from rushing to the sun. 

9. It is by magnetism that distant influences extend 
throughout all the realms of the sky. 

10. Universal magnetism throws its lines to every world 
in space, unites the most distant orbs with all others, con- 
nects every form of power with every other, reaches the 
smallest forms of life in our planet and opens to them the 
powers of communication with the whole universe. 

These conditions have always existed. The ability to 
know them, to recognize them, to take up the thread of con- 
nection with them, and to use them, is open to every human 
being. 

Personal magnetism is one of the divisions of physical 
power. It deals w 7 ith the influences that are exerted by 
animal electricity and its charms over others who come 
directly under such processes. It is the first great training 
school of self-control, without which no person can hope to 
control others. 

No power can be exerted without some medium through 
which to act. In universal magnetism the medium is ether, 
which has already been described. Of its existence there is 
ample proof, and it is accepted as the one great sea in space 
through which all influences travel. All writers on psychic 
subjects to-day, whose works are given standing as reliable, 
refer to the spiritual body as the psychic body or the ethereal 
body. It is not made of ether, but employs that agency as 
the medium through which it passes on to other worlds. 

It is thus seen that some kind of substance is everywhere 
present. Water is more unstable than land, as land is more 
stable than sand, and sand than mud, or mud than water, or 
water than air, or air than gases, and so ether is lighter 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 109 

than gases. Under this theory, the whole universe is phys- 
ical; but science still regards the ethereal as psychic, and 
the distinction should be maintained for convenience, if for 
no other reason. 

Personal magnetism is the power of control between minds 
and bodies in their physical relations. 

Universal magnetism is the power of control between 
psychic minds and psychic life, in their psychic relations. 

Thus it will be seen that: — 

Telepathy is knowledge, 

Magnetism is power. 

In the functions of the physical mind and the physical 
body, telepathy has always been more or less active ; but 
it has been found that personal magnetism, under the highest 
cultivation, will increase the activity of the telepathic func- 
tions to a degree that borders on the wonderful. The 
results are so remarkable and startling that they amaze the 
student at every step of progress in these twin studies. 

Every intelligent persons knows that there is a physical 
mind and a physical body; a psychic mind and a psychic life. 
These primary facts being true, it must needs follows that, 
inasmuch as magnetism is power and telepathy knowledge, 
there should be both power and knowledge within reach of 
the student of psychic phenomena, as well as on the physical 
side. Psychic telepathy is not only a new science, but is 
the direct result of the study of universal magnetism, and 
has been made possible only by that system. In fact it was 
discovered through that channel only; and this accounts for 
the absence hitherto of any work on psychic telepathy. 

Magnetism develops telepathy. 

Universal magnetism, being psychic power, develops 
psychic telepathy. 



no 



CHAPTER XX. 
PSYCHIC TELEPATHY. 

■j". >.i • . . j . -. . ........ . ."".".".". i ". _ .". ■".". ~.~. - .~."i _ . - r."< "... .";.- 




ROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD of the 

'world's history, the power of conveying 
thoughts through channels other than the 
senses, has been recognized and wondered at. 
Strange things have been performed in the 
name of this seemingly subtle influence. But 
as we have come to know it better, we find 
that it is nothing but the union of the ordinary senses with 
the subconscious mind. A glimpse of what is meant by the 
latter is caught when a person is hypnotized. Nature does 
not want the two minds to know each other; so she re- 
quires that the ordinary brain shall be put to sleep, and on 
awaking it will have no recollection of what it saw during 
its hypnotic slumber. 

By comparing this fact with the account of hypnotism 
given in a subsequent chapter, the difference between the 
two powers may be readily seen. 

But it is not true that every kind of hypnotism results 
in telepathy. Nor is it true that telepathy depends always 
on hypnotism. The use of the latter is a very quick way 
in which to get proofs of the existence of such a power as 
telepathy. The method to be pursued is too extensive for 
this work, but it is referred to in the chapter mentioned. 
After a succession of hypnotic sleeps the mind of the subject 
becomes very sensitive and soon gives evidence of having 
knowledge of affairs that have occurred and are occurring 
in other places, no matter how far away. He very rarely 
knows what is going on about him. He seems to get his 



PSYCHIC TELEPATHY in 

information from the minds of others rather than from 
the occurrences themselves. This distinction is important. 

It is interesting to note the progress that has been made 
in the development of the true studies of psychic phenomena. 

The first step was taken nearly thirty years ago when we 
discovered the habits of men and women who possessed 
natural magnetism. They were conscious of their powers, 
but seemed to have no knowledge of the habits of living 
that gave rise to those powers. Certain secret processes were 
developed until a very effective system was originated that 
in every instance led to the cultivation of personal magnet- 
ism, based on natural habits. Failure was impossible, be- 
cause nature was copied and really installed in the lives of 
those who practiced the system. 

That was physical magnetism, and it still is being used 
all over the civilized world. It has proved a blessing to over 
six hundred thousand persons who have adopted its methods. 

The next step was the fruit of magnetism. For centuries 
it had been noticed that the common thoughts of one mind 
would be flashed into other minds, without the aid of the 
ordinary senses. No person has lived in the last five thou- 
sand years who has not had countless experiences of thought 
transference. It was surmised that there were some laws 
that controlled this function ; but it was at last found 
that the greater the degree of physical magnetism present 
in the person, the more frequently came the flashing of 
thoughts from other minds. The result was the publication 
of the system known as physical telepathy, or thought trans- 
ference. 

For centuries there have been mediums and clairvoyants; 
ninety-nine per cent, of whom have either been mere pre- 
tenders or weak and ineffective agents. There is no profes- 
sion in which so small a percentage is genuine. But the fact 
that one in a hundred is reliable has made it possible for 
the other ninety-nine to gain the confidence of some of the 
public, especially when they offer seemingly perfect proofs 



ii2 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of success in their work. The peculiar method of the 
medium involves the use of a trance state. The same is 
true of the clairvoyant, in most instances ; and always when 
genuine. The same is true of the hypnotized person. But 
the trance of the medium and clairvoyant is self-invited; 
while that of hypnosis is brought about by a manipulator or 
controller. 

There is no doubt that some genuine telepathy has been 
produced by these three classes of persons. Indeed the 
societies for psychical research, including in their membership 
some of the ablest men of the civilized world, and thousands 
of such men too, have piled up immense records containing 
accurate and reliable results of a telepathic nature. 

The handicap is the unconscious condition of the mind 
of the agent. What satisfaction will you derive from being 
used by others to transmit knowledge w T hen you know noth- 
ing of what transpires? This disadvantage will always 
reduce the telepathy of the medium, the clairvoyant and the 
hypnotic subject to the lowest degree of value. 

On the other hand, the use of physical magnetism so 
wonderfully develops the power of the mind to receive 
flashes of thoughts from other persons that it serves the 
highest value. Out of thousands of cases that may be re- 
ferred to as examples, we wish to present one for the purpose 
of explaining what is meant. A very ordinary lawyer who 
had more leisure than clients, took up the practice of physical 
magnetism, known popularly as personal magnetism, and per- 
sisted in it day after day until he felt himself to be a new 
being. Prior to this, he had been in the courts rarely, and 
did not try more than half a dozen cases a year. After this, 
however, his clients gradually became more numerous, and 
he w y on success by his skill in cross-examination. In his 
own words he says : " I found that I could get glimpses 
of ideas that were in the minds of witnesses, and I never 
failed to get at the truth. I could not read the words of 
others, but I caught their meaning and purpose, which was 



PSYCHIC TELEPATHY 113 

more valuable." — This is one case only. — A very recent 
report from a physician says: "After I had studied mag- 
netism and followed it with the system of thought transfer- 
ence, I found the thoughts and conditions of my patients 
coming into my mind, not in words, but in tangible evidence ; 
and I have been of more service to humanity because of this 
added function." 

These examples are types of countless experiences, and 
they are cited here to show the high value of that form of 
telepathy that will not be compelled to pass into the trance 
state. Of what use is a power that requires unconsciousness 
on the part of the person using it in order to secure facts 
that cannot be obtained by ordinary channels? 

We class hypnotism, clairvoyance and trance conditions all 
in the very lowest stratum of value. 

As magnetism is the opposite of hypnotism, and is so re- 
garded by every person familiar with the two functions, so 
the kind of telepathy that attends hypnotism and clair- 
voyance is the opposite of that power which follows the 
development of magnetism. 

This distinction is so important that it should never be 
lost sight of for a moment in these studies. 

The third step was a departure out of the realm of 
physical magnetism into that of psychic magnetism, resulting 
in a series of private works known as Higher Magnetism, 
Advanced Magnetism and Universal Magnetism, all asso- 
ciated with the physical side, but taking wide leaps into 
psychic considerations, and going as far as it is possible for 
human knowledge to reach in the light of recent discoveries. 
These works have attracted attention among thoughtful 
people everywhere. 

The advance made by such systems has been seen in the 
loftier conception of life by those who have pursued the 
studies in all earnestness. 

Through physical magnetism it is possible to find the way 
to physical telepathy. 



ii 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Through physical telepathy it is possible to find the way 
to psychic magnetism, and up to the grand heights of univer- 
sal magnetism. 

Through universal magnetism it is possible to find the 
way to psychic telepathy; and here the control is between 
forms of psychic life everywhere; and the knowledge that 
this exalted telepathy brings is of psychic powers everywhere. 
Magnetism is power; physical magnetism is power over the 
physical mind and the physical body; physical telepathy is 
knowledge of the physical body and the physical mind; 
universal magnetism is power over the psychic mind and 
psychic life; and psychic telepathy is knowledge of such 
life and mind. These propositions should be memorized and 
repeated daily until they become a second self in your 
existence. 

Now let us look back to the first principles of this study: 

Physical mind and physical life perish; both returning to 
the funds from which they are taken in their birth and 
growth. Psychic mind and psychic life are deathless; noth- 
ing can harm them. 

All that is physical is confined to this earth. Nothing 
physical can get away from here. Therefore all that dies 
returns to earth and can go no further. On the other hand 
the psychic came to the earth from other worlds, and goes 
hence in due time. The universe is the home of the psychic 
mind and psychic life. Universal magnetism deals with 
the entire universe. Psychic telepathy is knowledge of the 
psychic mind on earth and in the universe; and of psychic 
life on earth and in other worlds. 

These propositions are not only logical and sound, but 
stand as the giant pillars of creation, their shafts sunk deep 
into the foundations of existence and rising to the highest 
pinnacles of the sky. 

In place of the word magnetism substitute the word 
poiver, and you will have a better understanding of its 
meaning. The human body is an organism of faculties 



PSYCHIC TELEPATHY 115 

and functions. Whatever mode of use that will increase 
their powers in wholesome directions, is magnetism. The 
greater the natural power, the less likelihood there is of 
lapses and hypnotic tendencies; therefore these traits are 
faults that weaken and harm a person. 

Law. — The lower the grade of telepathy the more ob- 
scure it is. 

Knowledge of the life beyond the grave cannot come 
safely and cleanly through the sewerage of the mind of 
the medium, the clairvoyant or the hypnotic subject. They 
have no power beyond the physical. They may reflect the 
mental impressions that have endured in other brains after 
the death of another, or they may interpret the wandering 
intelligence of physical minds that have passed out of the 
body and have not yet dissolved into their general funds. 

These are truths. 

Let them be examined closely and under the searchlight 
of the most powerful analysis; the more they are studied 
and tested, the more impregnable they become. Persons 
who will not accept at first any facts that antagonize their 
pet beliefs, will in time come to recognize the force of these 
tremendous laws. 

It would be the most stupid mind that would deny the 
existence of a physical and a psychic life in the human body. 
Such dual organisms are everywhere admitted to exist. This 
fact alone opens wide the door to all the truths that have 
been presented in this chapter. And, in the light of psychic 
telepathy, that door will not close again until the hope that 
springs eternal in the human breast shall have been registered 
in the highest courts of heaven. 




n6 



CHAPTER XXI. 

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INTUITION. 

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|\ ITTLE BY LITTLE the powers come down 
the scale into the busy scenes of physical life. 
Their duties seem now to be confined to the 
purpose of helping struggling humanity. 
What is called an education is supposed to be 
book learning. The use of words, the correct 
way of spelling them, the ability to do mathe- 
matical work enough to secure an understanding of the 
values of things, and a few other branches, more or less 
useful, make up necessary book learning. 

But wisdom does not come in that way. Nor is any 
part of the book learning of earth useful in the life be- 
yond. In other words, the psychic world has no occasion 
to employ grammar, spelling, reading, arithmetic, or lan- 
guages. The best examples of college training have gone 
down to the grave carrying in the dead brain all the acquisi- 
tions of the university, every part of which dissolves and 
molders back to the soil. 

There is but one genuine education, and that tells us 
what man is, whence he came, where he goes, and what 
duties and lines of usefulness in this life are best adapted to 
his happiness and success both here and hereafter. 

He should know what his needs here are, what he can 
best do and do at his best, what he can accomplish here to 
make him a credit to this world; for as he fits himself to 
live here most nobly, he at the same time secures citizenship 
in the universe. 

To lead such a life as that, he must make his earthly ex- 



INTUITION 117 

istence a success. He must met the counter-efforts of the 
thousands whose interests are ever encroaching on his field 
of labor, and on the results of his struggles. He ought to 
know the motives, the purposes and the plans of all men 
and women who can do him a wrong or wrest from him 
the fruits of his work. 

There comes into his life a power called intuition, which 
performs the service of taking him as far as the outskirts of 
the motives of others. He can cultivate this faculty by lis- 
tening to it, or he may allow it to hover all the while about 
him without recognition. It never speaks so plainly that 
its voice is absolutely certain. If it did, no man would be 
called upon to exercise his judgment and to weigh both 
sides of the important questions of life. 

But it comes to all men and women. 

It is increased when it is given attention and acted on. 
It is decreased when passion or prejudice holds sway. In 
successful lives it becomes a second nature. Human na- 
ture is read like an open book, and the plans of others are 
all discounted long before they are acted upon. It is said 
that women have intuition in greater degree than men 
because they are not capable of reasoning. The average 
woman runs to the following chain of argument: "It 
must be so, for there cannot be so much smoke without 
some fire;" referring to the usual subject of conversation, 
the misdeeds of others. Another feminine argument is this: 
A Bishop acknowledged paying money to keep from the 
newspapers a bit of scandal that reflected on his chastity. 
A woman claimed to have knowledge of his misconduct, 
and he paid her money to keep the affair from the press. 
When this fact was known, every feminine mind said: " If 
he was innocent he never would have paid that money. Do 
you think that / would ever pay hush money unless I was 
guilty. No, a thousand times no! " To test this princi- 
ple a society with the consent of the police in a large city 
selected at random twenty families who were approached 



n8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

with absurd charges. All were wealthy. All were given 
the opportunity to buy silence on payment of a certain sum 
of money, and to the surprise of the society, every family 
decided to pay the money. Yet not one was guilty. On 
hearing of this, the feminine mind will reason as follows: 
" They must have all been guilty of something, or they 
would not have paid hush money so readily." And to such 
minds as have weak reasoning powers, conclusions are 
jumped at with bounds. 

Intuition therefore is a keener faculty with women than 
with ordinary men. But it is a more dangerous weapon; 
for men who have acquired experience in dealing with hu- 
man nature are far more able to estimate the reliability of 
intuition and possibly to avert error. A woman of large 
experience in the world, coupling intuition with that ac- 
quisition, is a formidable individual. Some wives are better 
managers than their husbands and bring financial success 
into the family because of their combination of experience 
and intuition. 

We have just met a case where a man of active habits 
and great willingness to work, was made a widower when 
he was forty years of age. He had lost his farm by bad 
management. In a year he re-married. The farm was 
re-bought without any money, as neither had any; the same 
routine was re-established; dairy; crops; trading; and the 
humdrum details of the life in the country. But the new 
wife managed the husband. She stopped buying fertilizers. 
Crimson clover and lime were substituted, and the compost 
from the barnyard was mixed with old sod and made into 
a rich natural loam by the aid of deep plowing. She com- 
pelled her husband to cultivate the soil more deeply and 
oftener, on the principle that such manipulation took the 
place of expensive fertilizers which plaster mortgages all 
over farms. In three years their farm produced twice the 
crops per acre of any land in the county. 

Her intuition told her when to sell and not to sell the 



INTUITION tig 

products. Her neighbors got eighteen cents a pound for 
butter; she put it in molds nicely stamped, and got ten 
cents more a pound for it. They sold milk for one and a 
half cents a quart. She got five cents a quart. Nothing 
was wasted. It required no more work to do things right 
than in the old ways. Eggs were sold for thirty-six cents 
a dozen on an average the year round ; while her neighbors 
received less than twenty-four cents on an average. Hay 
was marketed at opportune times, and so were all the crops. 

In the fourth year, after the interest and taxes had been 
kept paid promptly, they began to reduce the mortgage 
which had been assumed owing to the fact that the holder 
of the security was a deacon in the church to which the man 
belonged, and he desired to help him all he could. In 
three more years the whole debt had been paid, and they 
are now saving money, with every prospect of being well- 
to-do some day. It is all the result of the intuitive powers 
of the wife. She is known as smart. Many business men 
and agents have tried to pull the wool over her eyes, but she 
knows them better than they know her. 

Many times we have been asked the question, What is 
the difference between inspiration and intuition? The an- 
swer may be given as follows: Inspiration is the power of 
revealing to great men and women and to geniuses, the 
knowledge of higher realms by which they are led to fame 
and lofty success. Intuition is the practical power that 
gives help to those who are engaged in the commonplace 
duties of life. 

But it has a broader scope under elevating conditions. 
It has been the good right hand of many a person in dan- 
ger. In detective life it is the sole source of success at 
crucial moments. We have volumes of letters and reports 
on this subject, and have learned from the lips of the 
world's best detectives of their constant use of the intuitive 
faculty. Pinkerton said that no man can hope to become a 
successful detective unless he possesses this gift. Impossible 



120 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

clews are run down and criminals caught by the quick leaps 
of thought from the mind of the intuitive realm. Could 
we devote here five hundred page to this one subject we 
could place before the reader the most wonderful cases of 
that kind that have ever claimed attention. 

No person denies that there is such a power as intuition. 

Some have had the direct help of this psychic agency and 
have been saved from misfortune or disaster by its aid. 
Being psychic it is closely allied to the class of warnings 
known as premonitions; but the latter are suggestive of ac- 
tual beings at work to help humanity, while intuition is a 
power rather than a personality. 

Here is a man about to pass a tree as he goes home in 
the early evening. Just before he reaches the tree, a form 
comes to him and a hand points to the other side of the 
street. That actually occurred. It was a premonition. 
In another case that actually occurred, a man was approach- 
ing a tree under similar circumstances, and something 
seemed to tell him that there was a man concealed behind 
it. He crossed the road. In both cases a highwayman 
stood ready to strike down the approaching man, and in 
both cases he was foiled. But the latter case was an ex- 
ample of intuition. The close association of the two pow- 
ers only serves to show their genuineness. 

We have had communications with people for many 
years and have never yet found one man or woman who 
did not believe in intuition ; while more than ninety-five 
per cent, now believe in premonitions; but comparatively few 
believe in spiritualism. 



121 



CHAPTER XXII. 



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INSTINCT. 




OWN STILL LOWER In the scale of 
everyday, practical life, comes the power known 
as instinct. It serves the purpose of directing 
the action of the lower forms of creation. 
Birds and beasts are all led by its aid. The 
new born child is also assisted in some of 
its early habits. Were it not for instinct, the 
lips of the babe would not suck its food, and it would 
starve. This action is as complete in all its details as if 
it had months of experience back of it. Yet without so 
much as a first lesson, the child as soon as it is born will 
begin to take its food like a veteran. 

The swallowing action is also taught by instinct. With- 
out it the taking of food into the stomach would be im- 
possible. 

As the child grows older it does not need the aid of 
instinct; and this trait is abandoned in its operations, as 
fast as the imitation that comes from education or experi- 
ence is employed. 

If it were true that only the simplest habits in the lower 
animals were adopted without training, they might be at- 
tributed to heredity; although heredity is so great a mys- 
tery that it may be ascribed to a power akin to instinct. 
But animals, birds and all forms of lower life are constantly 
giving fresh evidence of a source of knowledge that cannot 
be accounted for on the theory of heredity. Nor is it a 
blind impulse. There is a power that speaks to the mind 



122 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of the beast or bird and conveys specific information in 
some peculiar way. 

How does the bee know that the six-sided cell is the 
most economical shape for saving room and holding the 
greatest quantity of honey? It is not reasoning, for there 
is nothing on which to base the logical process of thought. 
It is not imitation, for there is no difference in the habits 
between bees that are orphaned without having gathered 
honey, and those that have been led by older companions. 

How do birds know when an early spring or a late spring 
is coming? The educated weatherman does not that. But 
many birds will delay their flight to the north in order to 
await the coming of a belated season ; while others will 
start earlier than usual when the spring is to be premature. 
Surely this cannot be heredity, nor is it taught by imita- 
tion. There is nothing in the sky or air to lead them on, 
for the freaks of the weather rarely deceive the feathered 
hosts. 

There are many reliable works on this subject; and they 
are worth reading if any person wishes to study this prob- 
lem for himself, and form an opinion as to what kind of 
power conveys information to the lower species of life. 




123 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

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| HYPNOTISM. 

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LEEP IS OF SEVERAL KINDS. If the 
nerves are weary, they must be given rest, and 
this is done by causing the brain to stop think- 
ing or acting, whether in study, or worry, or 
fear, or any other mental operation. If the 
muscles are tired, they need rest. When the 
vital centers which are known as the gan- 
glionic cells are exhausted, there should be the sleep of un- 
consciousness. Body, nerves and brain should be still. At 
the end of life, when the organic structure has run down, 
death is the sleep that cures all. 

But there is a kind of sleep that shuts off the conscious 
mind without putting the body or nerves into a state of 
slumber. This is a peculiar state of existence. One goes 
out of consciousness and immediately awakes into another 
state of consciousness, neither state knowing what is in the 
mind of the other. Nothing stranger can be imagined, and 
for years it was difficult to convince people that such a 
change was genuine. To-day every hospital of high stand- 
ing makes use of the hypnotic sleep to aid in effecting cures, 
especially if the heart is weak and some painful operation 
is needed. The body in such sleep feels no pain. You 
may cut off a leg and tell the patient that it is merely the 
act of putting on a fine suit of clothes and he will laugh 
with joy. You may stick pins all over him, run red hot 
irons into the flesh and do other acts of cruelty, and he will 
know nothing about the suffering until he wakes up. As 
long as the hypnotic sleep continues he will enter into any 



i2 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

mood that is suggested to his mind. After he comes into 
ordinary consciousness, then the pain of the torn and muti- 
lated flesh will be felt in all its agony. 

Between the mind that has physical knowledge and the 
mind that has subconscious knowledge, there is a barrier that 
is not often pierced. It is the purpose of nature to close the 
clairvoyant faculty that is quite sure to follow the continued 
use of the hypnotic sleep in the same person, so that too 
much evidence of the psychic world may not be available. 
As it is, despite the fact that such evidence is all the time 
coming to hand, she makes it as difficult to understand as 
possible. 

If a person is in the conscious mind, it is a hard 
struggle to get hold of the facts that are running free 
in the subconscious mind. Hence hypnotism must pass 
through several stages of the most skillful manipulation 
before the subject will be permitted to give up the secrets 
beyond. 

This kind of sleep has many stages. 

In its lowest form it is a disease known as catalepsy. 

In a stage next above that it is merely the sluggish 
slumber that makes the person a tool for the performer 
and exhibitor, or the patient on the operating table at 
the hospital. 

After long continued practice and repetition, the nervous 
mentality of the subject becomes acute enough to develop 
a fair degree of clairvoyance, and then hypnosis is called 
the trance state. Two persons are needed in most cases 
of this kind; one to cause the sleep and the other to be 
put to sleep, coming out of which in the subconscious state, 
the psychic mind is active. 

The English Society for Psychical Research and its 
American Branch also, as well as other similar organ- 
izations have all decided that hypnosis leads the way to 
clairvoyance or the trance condition employed by mediums. 
They have with equal certainty reported that there are 



Hypnotism 125 

some genuine mediums in the world who are able to 
reveal facts and secrets in the most amazing manner, but 
they stop this side of accepting the revelations as proof 
of the presence of spirits who talk to living persons through 
such mediums. 

By the use of the methods stated in the higher systems 
of magnetism any man or woman can practice self-hypno- 
tism and in time become a highly developed medium for 
clairvoyance and physical telepathy; but never for psychic 
telepathy. The latter branches off into a much more ethical 
process. 

When self-hypnotism has produced the results desired, 
it still stands alone and useless until the second person is 
present to call into action the powers that are thus be- 
stowed. Even when that is done, the subconscious mind 
of the individual is ignorant of what is known in the 
ordinary mind ; and the latter, on waking,, has not the 
slightest perception of what has been conveyed to the 
subconscious mind.. Thus the gift is a useless affair, and 
some method is required to connect the two minds. 

What has most puzzled the investigators is the fact that 
this barrier exists between the two minds. Nothing is 
more certain than that it does exist. How to break it 
down has been the study of the keenest minds during the 
past fifteen years. 

It was at one time thought that an important step had 
been taken toward the solution when it was known that 
a person may enter into a wakeful state of hypnotism. 
That is, many persons act readily upon suggestions of others, 
whether spoken or written, and seem to be powerless to 
disobey except when a strong counter influence has been 
brought to bear. This class has two divisions: The first 
is that which includes persons who have once been placed 
under the hypnotic control of others, and who become 
obedient to the will of the latter without being manipu- 
lated or put into a specific sleep. We recall the case 



126 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of a man who was passing on the other side of the street 
and who stopped at the demand of one who stood in the office 
on the second floor of a building. The demand was made 
in a whisper. It was winter and there was no possibility 
of the man hearing the whisper. At our suggestion, he 
was made to retrace his steps, then go ahead, then enter 
at the doorway of a building opposite,' and finally come 
on the run into the office where we stood. The details 
were such, and our own requests so varied that it was 
wholly impossible for the man to have rehearsed the strange 
performance in advance. It was clearly the case of one 
who had secured hypnotic control so often that distance 
made no difference, and sleep was not required. The poor 
fellow was weak in mind, and died in less than a year. 

The other class includes those who are of feeble will 
power. They may be bent at the whim of almost every- 
body to do or not to do anythingg. They see in every 
suggestion an idea of command without choice on their 
part. They are not fools, so much as weak-willed people. 
Even that class has several sub-divisions that need not now 
receive our attention, except that there is a kind of indi- 
vidual who believes what his passions and prejudices tell 
him. He is the man who is first to join a mob. He 
wreaks vengeance on the innocent and, finding the truth 
at last, slinks home, hoping that he will not. be discovered. 
You will see him at political meetings, making up the 
majority of the shouters. His mouth is wide open when 
in repose, and wider open when active. The peculiarity 
about him is that he believes what the speakers say: the 
country is going to the bowwows because of the misdeeds of 
the political party to which he does not belong. Hearing 
that statement, he looks from one man to another on either 
side of him, nods his head violently in approval, and begins 
to shout defiance to every party except his own. 

The same man is on the jury. He is swayed by passion, 
prejudice and mock sympathy. He has rendered more ver- 



HYPNOTISM 127 

diets of mis-justice than any other power in any age; and 
in this respect he is exclusively American. In higher rank 
we see the same kind of man sitting on the bench, known as 
the judge, allowing the lawyers to swing the wheel of justice 
out of its tracks by cheap and tawdry technicalities. To 
the hypnotized judicial mind a small point of law that serves 
no purpose except to impede the progress of justice, seems 
the only important thing in the whole universe, and he 
struggles to give birth to the hair-splitting decision which 
every sensible man outside of the court recognizes at once 
as a monstrosity. 

Thus we see the grades of hypnosis. 

Diseased minds, such as those of catelepsy, are often 
clairvoyant to a remarkable degree. There are three stages 
of this malady ; one in which the victim is wholly unconscious 
and has no after memory of the knowledge that passes 
through his mind. Other persons may use him and secure 
some telepathic communications; making the condition akin 
to that hypnosis. The relation between the tw T o classes of 
subjects is seen from the fact that those who are inclined 
to catalepsy are most readily hypnotized. 

The second stage of catalepsy is found in the exalted 
flights of the mind, the events and knowledge being held 
like the details of a dream. Revelation may have come in 
this way. It is possible that the inspiration that befell 
Mohammed occurred in such a state, unless he was an 
inventor of every part of his religion. 

Gigantic results invite the study of their causes. 

The only really practical and useful stage of catalepsy 
is that which allows the subject to remain awake during the 
clairvoyant activities. History contains many notable ex- 
amples of this stage. In fact almost every case of extraor- 
dinary genius in physical operations has been associated 
with the higher form of this disease. Instead of putting 
the mind into a hypnotic sleep, it has been made more wide 
awake, and far keener. 



is8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

It is well known that Napoleon was a cataleptic, that Alex- 
ander the Great was a cataleptic, and that Julius Caesar 
had the same disease. Hundred of others have been placed 
in the same category. But the extraordinary keenness of 
their minds has always led to early death or downfall. 
Napoleon was a wizard in his perception of the purposes 
of his enemies in battle. He knew what they expected, 
and did not expect, in his operations; and he never allowed 
them to surmise his purposes. Yet, while still in the prime 
of life, he was unable to maintain this keenness of perception. 
On the bloody field of Waterloo, with empire and liberty at 
stake, he rode in his saddle asleep. 

It is being claimed to-day that all phases of trance sleep 
and cataleptic drowsiness are forms of physical telepathy, 
and do not affect the psychic mind. Of this fact we are 
not sure ; and many observations will be made of the opera- 
tions of this function in order that the real law may be 
ascertained. 

There are times in the lives of all men and women when 
they are misled by the influence of others; and thus show 
a deficiency in magnetism. They believe things that are not 
true, although most of the time they are safe from such 
influence. 

Slightly lower in the scale are those persons who believe 
most readily the assertions they hear, or that they read in 
the papers; they are in a partial hypnotic state. Still lower 
down in the grade, not so much of intelligence as of lack 
of magnetism, are the people who are swayed in their beliefs 
and passions by almost every whim, feeling, or report. 
They include the usual jurors, the members of the mob, 
the great body of cheerers at political meetings, and all hasty 
thinkers. They are examples of waking-hypnosis. 

Then comes the lowest grade of all, the actual sleep that 
is induced by manipulation at first, and by suggestion later 
on. We have seen cases where the subjects had been so 
often controlled that there was no dividing line between 



HYPNOTISM 129 

wakefulness and sleep. The victims all died in a very few- 
years, despite the claim of physicians that hypnotism is an 
aid in the cure of disease. 

We have observed hundreds of cases of actual hypnotism. 
In some of them the subjects were conquered against their 
wills, although they were apparently willing to be controlled 
after their will had been over-ridden. " I will not seek 
to control any person who is not perfectly willing," was 
the claim of one hypnotist; yet he found many who came 
under his power whc tried at first to avoid it. 

In the sleep, the subject seems to wake up and to be 
alert, but he is a somnambulist at the time; a wide awake 
sleeper. Suggestions are acted upon with a blind obedience 
to another's will. 

Now it happens that many thousands of people are subjects 
— possible of hypnosis, who may never be actually put to 
sleep, because they may not come in contact with a hypnotist. 
They 'nevertheless show the symptoms of the failing by their 
ready consent to suggestions made by friends or acquaint- 
ances. They are the people who are tricked all along the 
pathway of life. They are credulous, acquiescent and yield- 
ing. They cannot make a good fight against temptation. 
In the criminal careers which some choose, in debauchery, 
in their inability to avoid alcohol, in their gambling at the 
race-tracks, and in other lines of wickedness, they are victims 
of suggestion or influences before which their natures fall 
paralyzed. 

Superstitious fear, belief in luck good or bad, worshipping 
the oracle of chance, or seeking the services of those who 
pretend to read the past, present and future, all induce the 
semi-hypnotic state that wrecks the mind and ruins the 
faculties. 



130 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

SUPERSTITION. 





TILL LOWER we descend into the oper- 
ations of life, and come now to a study of 
the influence that enslaves more than ninety- 
nine per cent, of all the inhabitants of the 
world. There is no one so ignorant or so 
educated that superstition does not taint their 
daily existence. In this age of advanced 
thought more recruits to the ranks of the free are being 
made and we often hear the remark : "I am not super- 
stitious in the least, but I would not sit down to a table 
of thirteen, nor would I begin anything on a Friday." 

Yet such person is sure that superstition is a mere mental 
fear. 

Not long ago we heard a very refined and highly sensible 
woman decry against the belief in superstition; but at 
the dining table she would not pass a dish of salt from 
her hand to another person's hand. Why not? It would 
be a sure sign of a quarrel. 

This fear may not be regarded as a power, but it 
exerts the full influence of a power, and that it stamps 
it as an evil ruler of humanity. 

A man who had built up a large fortune by his ability 
and who repudiated all opinions that leaned toward this 
power, afterwards became the most superstitious in- 
dividual we have ever met, and for the following reason : 
One Christmas day he sat at the table where thirteen 
persons were present. Next Christmas all of them had 
died but himself. He knew this to be the fact, because 



SUPERSTITION. 131 

they were his personal friends and he was present at their 
funerals. After that he lived in dread and died in the 
course of a few years. It was the fear that depressed 
him; and, whether there is any real power in superstition, 
it does incalculable harm by instilling fear into the mind. 

Many ocean vessels will not start on Friday for their 
voyages; their officers may not be superstitious, but they 
say the injury is done to the service by the dread which 
sailors would have of setting sail on that day. One 
captain remarked to us: "Why if we had a storm or 
danger arose in any form, the sailors who had left port 
on a Friday would be useless. They would feel sure of 
the coming disaster and would become cowards." 

Without exception it is true that the lower the grade 
of intelligence in the human mind the more it is swayed 
by superstition. In the African families there is constant 
fear of this power, and it does more than anything else 
to keep them ignorant and debased. Among negro serv- 
ants this same slavery of the mind is many times more 
abject than among the educated classes of the same race. 
Their employers have found it necessary to yield to their 
superstitious dread when they would not take one word 
or look of impudence from them. 

A book would be required to contain all the catalogue 
of superstitions that prevail among the educated white 
classes. Young women have the most abundant vocabulary 
in this respect. When they are grown up and get some 
hard knocks in the world of experience, they drop a few 
score signs from the list. It is a beautiful phase of human 
nature to hear the mature woman of sense describe the 
follies of believing in this power, and then give her friends a 
constant stream of evidence to the contrary, explaining each 
exception by saying: "It is a pet idea of mine not to 
do this or that, but it has nothing to do with superstition." 

The full measure of this power is seen only when the 
nervous system is thrown into a cataleptic fear by which 



132 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

self-hypnotism is induced. If you are weighted down by 
dread of any kind, you will do a great injury to your 
nerves and mind. Out of this fear came the influences 
known as witchcraft. If a shrewd man or woman knew 
of any person who had become a slave to superstitious fear, 
a control of a very serious nature could be secured, and 
thus it opened up a special kind of hypnotism. 

Physicians who have made investigations along this line 
have come to the conclusion that witchcraft did in fact 
exist. The age in which history charges it with most 
offenses was peculiarly an age of great superstitious fear. 
Some persons had over one thousand signs of evil, so 
many in fact that it was impossible to turn to the right 
or the left without invoking the spirits of demons, as they 
thought. 

Added to this was the mental darkness of the age in 
which they lived, and the criminal tendencies of the masses 
in Europe or the heavy religious melancholy of the Puritans 
in America, all of which destroyed the normal power of 
the nervous system. 

If you will note the effect of a nervous person alone 
in an old house at midnight, with strange noises in the 
room above and the cellar below, you have a condition that 
gives rise to the presence of spirits, so-called. Self-hypno- 
tism enters into the scene and creates sights and sounds at 
the will of the frightened mind. If in that lonely house 
where you are sitting in the dark at midnight, you have 
the corpse of a dead man in the adjoining room, you can 
get an idea of the age which gave birth to witchcraft. 

The demon-world is pregnant with such progeny. 

Superstition is the basis of ignorance. Not the kind 
of ignorance that is indicated by the inability to read and 
write, but the denser kind that has an incoherent idea of 
the duties and needs of life on this earth. Educated 
people are superstitious. Geniuses are enslaved by this 
power. Every actor is likewise weighted down. Nearly 



SUPERSTITION 133 

all business men are superstitious. Bankers have the same 
weakness, showing that a keen money-making mind is not 
free from ignorance. 

Whoever allows this power to influence them is sure to 
be hindered in their duties, for the latter must of necessity 
give way to the interference of this agency. When a boat 
is ready to sail on Friday, it should leave port, and not lose 
a day. When there are thirteen at a table, whether to dine 
or do business, there is some loss somewhere if the function 
is delayed or broken up. These are but examples. The 
grand total of notions or signs embraced in the whole 
category of the superstitious realm is so large that it would 
take a book to properly classify and describe them. 




134 

CHAPTER XXV. 

<|)IVI~IVIVIvlVIVIVIVlvlV4>l 4~4 4 .,", 4-4 1.1 i . K 4 . 4 ' iTl . 4 . 4 , i . I , i . 4viVlvlVlVIVlVl\ 

THE DEMONS. 

NE MORE DESCENT In the scale of the 
unseen powers and we come to the lowest 
realm of all. Here are the demons. In the 
making of the many wonderful and beautiful 
worlds in the universe, with freedom of will 
in every created being, some must fall, and 
there must be some place to which they fall. 
It is the opinion among the best minds of to-day that writers 
who are not directly inspired by the Supreme Being may 
nevertheless receive inspired thoughts as stated in an earlier 
chapter of this division. 

Among such writers are men like Milton. 
In his Paradise Lost he depicts the fall of the lost angels 
or beings, giving vivid accounts of their long descent 
through space, and their apparent endless falling headlong 
to the nether regions. So much potency of description 
cannot be the imagination of a mere physical mind. The 
very essence of the motive in that sublime poem is the 
dropping out of heaven of beings that might have inherited 
eternal bliss but for the fact that they have been allowed 
to choose their fates for themselves, just as you and all 
others have been given freedom of choice. 

In the same character of description the Bible confirms 
the story of the falling of the beings out of heaven. In 
fact that book of books cannot be interpreted in any other 
meaning. It will not do to ascribe to everything sacred 
an allegorical meaning, although that is an easy way in 
which to dispose of the otherwise unsolvable problems of 



THE DEMONS 135 

the Scriptures. Where the trope is, in the accounts of 
the fall of man and the fallen angels we have never yet 
been able to discover. 

Such a work as the Inferno of Dante has more or less 
of the semi-inspiration of Milton in it. It reflects some 
degree of psychic power. In it we are taught that there 
was a fall, and the nether regions are crudely depicted 
in the midst of a chaos of description that is more poetical 
than coherent. But there is the central idea in it that 
cannot be shaken by all these shortcomings. 

No person can go very far in the study of psychic 
telepathy without finding out the facts and laws that are 
set forth in the pages of this work that follow. 

LAW.— Earth is hell. 

To what extent this statement may shock the mind of 
the reader it is not possible to conceive. No one has ever 
pretended that earth is heaven. Most students of crimi- 
nology have already come to the conclusion that earth is 
hell. But crimes and criminals alone cannot make a hell 
of any planet. 

LAW. — All created beings have been endowed with the 
freedom to choose their own fates and destined careers. 

This law is so well recognized that it need not be dis- 
cussed. 

The Creator could not associate with Himself any form 
of life that was not free. If one being in a million were 
to become rebellious, the percentage would be hardly a 
marring influence on the state of absolute perfection ; yet 
one in a million would, in the aggregate, produce a total 
of hundreds of millions or billions perhaps in the entire 
universe. 

Whether the fall was completed in one era, or is now 
in progress, cannot affect the principle involved ; although 
it is supposed that it occurred at one period only. Scien- 
tists agree that humanity is the acme of imperfection, judged 
by any standard; that it is as diabolical in nature as any 



i 3 6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

creatures can be and not totally annihilate each other. In 
fact, from the beginning of time, the chief aim of man 
seems to have been to slay his fellow beings, and to add 
to the doom of death all the torture that can be invented 
in the diabolical genius of the human heart. 

There has never been an age of honesty or peace. 

The present time seems to us the best in all the history 
of the world, and it is full to the brim and running over 
with dishonesty, cruelty and evil. In all parts of the 
world, but more especially in the civilized countries, crime 
and wickedness of every description are on the rapid in- 
crease. Reports of investigators, including heads of police, 
say that in the past fifteen years there has been an alarm- 
ing increase in the number of all grades of crime and all 
kinds of penal offenses. 

The tortures that were practiced in all ages down to 
the most recent date in the leading countries, and that are 
practiced now in ninety per cent, of the world, have put 
Satan to the blush if the sacred accounts are to be taken 
for their face value. Diabolical, cruel, barbarous, fiendish 
and terribly demoniacal are the inventions that man has 
put into practice with the one idea of making his fellow 
beings suffer the most excruciating agony prolonged through 
as great a period of time as possible. No government has 
been exempt from this condition. No creed has not 
been stained by its guilt. In fact more people, more brave 
men, more helpless women and innocent children have been 
burned alive, or racked, or broken on the wheel, or pinched 
day after day with red hot irons, or otherwise mutilated 
by orders of the church than by the state in the countries 
that boast of the greatest civilization. To murder met 
the penalty of hanging, a painless death. But to have an 
opinion, a mere breath of the mind, was met by the most 
devilish tortures that human ingenuity could conjure up. 

It has been said that the age of such conditions has 
passed forever. This is not true. Men have been 



THE DEMONS 137 

burned alive in the United States within the past six 
months; some at the stake, some in houses for purposes of 
robbery, and some for revenge. Only last week a band of 
men forced three men, two women, and five children into 
a house, piled up faggots about it, and set it on fire. In 
the old times the victim at the stake was quickly relieved 
from consciousness by the smoke and flames; but in a house 
where the inmates must fly from room to room as the 
hot flames creep upon them, the death is slow and torturing. 
The human heart is as hard now as ever, but the power 
of police suppression is greater. 

At a military college a young man was taken from his 
room at midnight, stripped of all his clothing, and carried 
to a river, the ice broken, and the poor fellow forced to 
stay under water until unconscious and nearly dead from 
the flooding of his lungs. On being taken out, he was re- 
vived, and the same treatment given him again and again. 
From a rugged and vigorous constitution, he was made 
so ill that he fell away and in a short time died. His name 
was William Jarvis and the hazing took place at West 
Point, the national military school. This young man was 
the personal friend and associate of the author in his young 
manhood, and he related these experiences in person. 

In one of the Western States within a few months, a 
young man was hazed by being tied to a tree and then 
burned slowly. The fire made more rapid progress than 
was expected ; and the boy, after suffering the most ex- 
cruciating tortures by slow burning, died. 

These are merely sample cases. They are equalled on 
every hand by the disposition to torture with the most 
fiendish cruelty the pupils who attend institutions of 
learning. A college president said : " I do not like to say 
it, but I think that more good will come from letting the 
public know the opinion of a man in my position than to 
keep silence, when I assert that there are many students 
who, if given freedom to haze their fellows, would revive 



i 3 8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

all the tortures of the dark ages. The demon spirit is 
only dormant in the human breast in this age of advanced 
morality." 

In a leading magazine, a very able article on Chicago 
stated recently that the immense numbers of diabolical 
criminals of every grade from cutthroats up to runners 
and managers of houses of prostitution and politically sup- 
ported saloons, where crimes are nightly enacted without 
fear of punishment, proved beyond all doubt that humanity 
to-day is just as savage and just as fiendish as in the blackest 
period of Roman history when women and children were 
fed to famished wild beasts in the arena for the amusement 
of the assembled thousands. 

Surely a just God never made such beings as these. 
Either the inhabitants of this planet are freshly created at 
birth by the hand of the God of Love, or they are the 
product of the demons. As the earth is seeking always to 
blossom into beauty and kindliness, through its flowers, its 
adornment, its color, its exquisite dress and rich emblems 
of peace and sweetest tenderness, and through the noble 
characters that rise from the debris of its wickedness, there 
can be no doubt that God lives. 

This being true, there can be no reason to believe that 
the devilish beings that infest this globe are His direct 
work. In fact they are the product of their own past. 

LAW. — The earth is the dumping ground of the uni- 
verse. 

If the beings that dwell on this planet were created by 
the Supreme Being in just the moral condition in which 
they now exist, then that Creator is not God. If they were 
once brought into life pure and perfect, endowed with the 
power to choose their own fate, and have rebelled against 
the government of heaven, they are no longer fit to remain 
in an abode of peace and love. They must of necessity fall. 
If they are allowed to remain where they fall, their presence 
must always be a source of pain and suffering to those who 



THE DEMONS 139 

see them. It is not right that any part of a happy world 
should be devoted to the incarceration of demons, as fallen 
beings are called. It certainly would be a wrong to set 
off in each orb in the sky, a place where these demons could 
dwell. 

LAW. — A soul once created is immortal. 

As these demon souls must live on forever, it would be 
an injustice to inflict them on other beings who had been 
loyal to God. As they are immortal, they would then 
remain in those world-prisons forever. In such prisons 
they would be deprived of the power to free themselves. 
As they are all psychic beings the question of transit to 
one specific world is of no importance. 

The whole universe may be traversed. 

It was decreed that one orb alone should hold all the 
demon spirits of the universe, and they were sent to this 
earth. 

In order to maintain their own independence they were 
allowed to run as wild as they chose, and given food and 
drink with opportunities to clothe and shelter themselves 
as best they could. 

LAW. — The earth began as a rejected rock world, and 
has evolved its own progress until it was fit for the physical 
existence of the demons. 

Hardship after hardship has been placed in the path of 
man from the beginning of time. The rock has been cold 
on this globe for about one hundred million years. Man 
began life here about one hundred thousand years ago, and 
it is probable that the beings fell from their rank in the 
universe at that time. 

Days and nights, weeks, months and years are nothing 
in the psychic world. Whether it requires an aeon or a 
million centuries, is of no importance. Humanity might 
occupy a hundred thousand years in evolving from rock to 
physical life, and it would pass as instantaneous creation. 
Therefore it is immaterial whether man was directly given 



140 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

life on earth, or came to his present stage by the processes 
of improvement. 

LAW. — Physical life is the union of matter with the 
soul. 

When the beings fell out of heaven they could not ap- 
pear as physical beings until the rock of this planet had 
been molded into shape to receive them. Many changes 
were required. There must be pliable matter capable of 
living, of which the plant was the first type, containing 
sap which was the forerunner of blood, leaves which were 
the forerunner of the lungs, and roots which were the fore- 
runner of the stomach having digestive powers. 

Then food was essential before man took bodily shape, and 
this was brought about by the operations of nature such 
as rain, frost and the flow of waters, to wear away the 
rock, reduce it to sand and afterward mingle it with decay 
in order to produce loam, out of which man would be able 
to secure his food. All that he eats of whatever nature, 
comes from such loam, even if he takes the flesh of animal 
life as part of his diet. 

To accomplish all these changes required many thousands 
of years. In time the material of the earth was fit to 
be united with the soul of a demon, and man appeared. 
The proofs furnished by geology and other sources, show 
conclusively that every grade of prehistoric man was a 
demon; and there could have been no exception to that 
rule. After humanity had occupied this globe for many 
centuries, all the while in the form of savages, which are 
the basest of the human demons, the better spirits of peace 
and love sought to find scope in which to develop, and 
religion, inspiration and hope of immortality began to find 
room in the breast of mankind. 

Every statement in this chapter is a fact. 
It is an absolute, provable fact. It is verified beyond 
all doubt by the uses and practice of psychic telepathy; but, 
in addition thereto, it is proved by every writing on the 



THE DEMONS 141 

subject that has ever been issued. It is proved by every 
science that touches the subject, by every form of religion, 
by every substantiated belief, and by the conditions of the 
earth and its people, past and present. It is being proved 
here and now day and night, year in and year out. It is 
in harmony with all the problems that stand before the 
mind. It explains every phenomena of every kind. With- 
out it there is a hopeless tangle in the philosophies of the 
world. 

The laws and statements, therefore, that have thus far 
been made must be accepted as the only truths that bear 
on this great theme. 

They are proved with absolute certainty up to the present 
moment. 

But they will be sustained with cumulative evidence all 
along the way to the end of this book. 




142 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

M' I II M -s! V .CI M M_^K I ~l^l^tA|_; | A, /. IA.K r I A| ".r m^lM » 1^1 M^I^KI/^IAlAIAIAtAIAlyM/ 
. | ,'i . I . Is KJBKRK/IvIvIvIvIvIVIvk'i.IvIvIvIVIVIVIvI.K I s. I V I V 1 S, I v ~«VlTl~l~l~l~lv"l \ 

I' THE DUMPING GROUND. 1 

i i 

ilii'A'^'^'— '—'--C-'il'-T '-i'-1'Jl'^'.'.'^' ''A|A|- !£.!£.! ^tJM a I'INIA IJM a, - I^I^I^I^'.a >^_'^AI^t^t • < | > 
riviAyl-^tVlviV l,I.MM,l.|,.|.M,|,,,r,|,|.|,|.KK|.ri.|,|.|.| v |,KI.|.|,|vl. IVI,",: 

ROOFS IN ABUNDANCE are everywhere 

obtainable of the fact that earth is the dump- 
ground of the universe. What is called evo- 
lution is merely the effort of nature to unite 
the lost souls with matter and effect a union 
that will give man, through the exercise of his 
free choice, the opportunity to make his fate for 
himself. It is the struggle of the ages to bring about this 
condition. In later laws we will see what are the direct 
sources of supply in maintaining the progress of life on this 
planet. 

The present chapter must be devoted to the consideration 
of the earth as the dumping ground of the universe. 

The universe is the whole sky with all the orbs that 
occupy it. 

To be a dumping ground means that there must be a 
place to send or dump the discarded beings collected from 
all the orbs of the sky. 

The first idea of a gentle religion is that the Creator 
is love, all love, all peace, all beauty of mind and spirit. 
It has also been taught that such a Creator brought into 
life the beings that first dwelt on this globe. It is well 
known that prehistoric man was a cruel and fiendish savage 
in whose breast not one particle of love or gentleness could 
find a lodging place. Since the dawn of history, the 
Mongolians, Egyptians and Ethiopians were the first peoples 
to come forward ; as the inhabitants of the southern part 
of Central Asia whence sprang the foundation of civiliz- 
ation, were much later in point of time. Yet if you look 



THE DUMPING GROUND 143 

into the character of the Mongolians, the Egyptians and 
the Ethiopians, you will find nothing but demoniac nature. 
They found their chief pleasures in cruelties, tortures and 
sensual debauch. 

The fact that is thus made prominent is that the first 
beings that came upon earth were demons; the second ar- 
rivals were descended from these and were also demons; 
the third arrivals were descended from them and were also 
demons; and it is only after a great lapse of time that 
the light of God, of peace, of love, and of the heaven-born 
desire for a true religion has found place in the heart of 
man. At the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and all other 
stages, the beings that came upon the earth were demons, 
demons, demons, demons, demons; and to-day the great 
mass of life on this planet is demoniacal, as has been ex- 
plained in the preceding chapter. 

That earth is a dumping ground is taken for granted. 
It is also proved by stronger evidence than any other fact 
in all the universe. 

That God is love and peace is also established from the 
other gigantic fact that He is rising up out of every mist 
of earth with love, peace and immortality in His trident. 
No one will deny that these attributes are seeking as- 
cendency to-day, and have been for centuries, slowly but 
surely; and they cannot come from out the heart of 
demons. Therefore they point with unmistakable proof 
to the sublime fact that there is a God and that the souls 
of men and women are reaching out for His hand. 

Here are two armies of facts marshaled against each 
other. 

Painful as it seems, it is our duty to show something 
of the conditions of this world that stamp it as the dump- 
ing ground of the universe. Volumes could be written on 
this theme. But a few salient facts will suffice. 

1. We start with the assertion that God is the Creator, 
and all is love and peace and gentleness. 



i 4 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

2. Having brought into life the beings that occupied 
the orbs of the sky, it was necessary in order to maintain 
love and peace in those worlds, to cast forth all rebellious 
souls; for it would have been contrary to the doctrines and 
the principles of love and peace to allow them to remain at 
large, a menace to all other human beings. On the same 
principle it is a wrong to loyal citizens on earth to permit 
criminals to have a share in their lives. 

3. The discarded souls were dumped on one orb in order 
that they might work out their own fate under the doctrine 
of freedom of choice. 

4. The first and all the hordes that have come on this 
planet have been demons and only demons, except in so 
far as now and then some soul chooses its better destiny 
and becomes again an inhabitant of heaven, as will be fully 
described in the later pages of this book. 

5. This earth is that dumping ground. A loving and 
peaceful God could not create the demons that have oc- 
cupied this globe for one hundred thousand years. They, 
therefore, must have been driven out of heaven as told by 
the inspired Milton ; or else they are an endless succession 
of demon generations. 

6. The latter claim cannot be true, for it is denied by 
the fact that the love and peace of God are breaking through 
the demon life of earth all the time. It is also denied by 
psychic telepathy. 

7. For more than ninety-six thousand years of demon life 
on this earth there was not one ray of hope, or peace, or 
love in the countless millions that dwelt here. 

8. Out of the succession of generations since history began, 
less than two per cent, of humanity have been free from 
the influences of demon life and character. 

9. When America was discovered, it was drenched from 
the northern limits to the southern seas with the blood of 
victims that was shed to satisfy the hellish spirit of the 
people who lived here. To murder, to kill, to cut to pieces, 



THE DUMPING GROUND 145 

to burn at the stake, to torture, to prolong suffering into 
aeons of agony, — these were the controlling forces in human 
nature, and would be to-day were it not for the advance 
of another rank of life that is carrying the banner of 
peace and love. 

10. Similar tortures _ and demoniacal practices are 
abundant even now all over the globe. All Asia is given 
to them. All the Old World except a few nations still 
clings to the barbaric, although the barriers are fast 
crumbling before the march of better things. Russia that 
asks to be taken seriously in its claims to civilization, is 
a hot bed of torture and unceasing cruelties. 

11. In the few nations that call themselves civilized, such 
as the better peoples, the spirit of demon life takes on a 
higher coloring. Once when a savage wanted to take a 
wife, he went to where the maiden lived, clubbed her 
over the head until she was insensible, then carried her 
to his home. He did not ravish her until he had gone 
through this striking ceremony of marriage. To-day the 
demon spirits of rape, of fornication, of adultery, of Sodomy, 
of masturbation, of gonorrhoea, of syphilis, of venery, of 
sensuality in low and foul degrees, are everywhere filling 
the lives of humanity in the civilized nations. More than 
two-thirds of the better sections of New York City are 
called the tenderloin. If the prostitutes of Chicago and 
their male patrons were all coralled in one field, they 
would have numbers enough to set up a city larger than 
Boston. This one class of crime is cited merely to show 
to what an extent the demon character is still rampant. It 
is one example only. 

12. In London and Paris all the good of men and 
women, all that is worthy in soul and body of the great 
majority is given over to the infection of venery and 
venereal diseases. Eighty per cent, of the population of 
those great cities is thus devoted to demon life. The 
police know it. They say the only way is to let the 

10 



146 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

criminal tendencies run their course, and the fires will 
burn out in death or hopeless disease. There is no cure. 

13. The accumulated murders that occur in the civilized 
countries make an immense total. They are so common 
that the public mind is indifferent to them. Even self- 
defense is murder, although the slayer is not the guilty 
party. The assailant invited his own death. Suicides 
are murders, or the result of wasted lives or blasted hopes, 
with the spirit of demons running riot after years of defiance 
of the laws of life. Wanton negligence resulting in death 
is a murderous spirit; and the two hundred thousand deaths 
from accidents in America every year are the fruit of this 
wanton disregard for human life. 

14. Lesser crimes are so abundant that there are hun- 
dreds of books written to describe them. There are endless 
laws made to punish them. There are prisons, jails, peni- 
tentiaries, and penal institutions in every part of our fair 
land; despite which fact, only one per cent, of the criminals 
are ever punished. What the demon spirit is may be seen 
in mob violence. In the wild West all men and women are 
rough in manner and many an innocent victim has fallen to 
earth by the hand of summary vengeance. The hanging bee 
may often be deserved, but it denotes a vicious soul both 
in the victim and the mob. In the olden days of the 
past few generations, men and women were tarred and 
feathered. Even if they deserved it, the heart that can 
participate in such methods is not the offspring of love and 
peace. Few of the mob are ever punished. 

15. In the past twelve months, right in the very age 
in which we live, more than one hundred mobs have taken 
life in the United States, the land of the highest moral aims. 
Of the victims of such rule not all are guilty. Men are 
brutally mutilated. Despite the fact that we boast of the 
enforcement of law, very little is done to check the progress 
of riots. In any city a crowd may assemble on short notice, 
may wreck property, slay innocent people, and melt away 



THE DUMPING GROUND 147 

into their haunts without a finger being raised to bring the 
guilty to justice. The claim that we are a government by 
the people is true ; for there might arise one thousand mobs 
in this country and instantly render the government helpless. 
One mob can do that much. In the summer of this year 
a man in the most public streets of New York City was 
carrying his boy home. Some one raised the cry that it 
was a case of kidnapping. In a few moments a thousand 
furious people were chasing the father. He ran into a door- 
way, but was unmercifully beaten and nearly killed before 
the police rescued him. When the mob learned its mistake, 
it slunk away. Deaths have followed such uprisings, and 
if proof comes of the innocence of the victim, the mob slinks 
away to its lair, licking their blood-red chops like the savage 
beasts of which they are cousins. There is no redress. The 
government is helpless. 

16. There are records made in the past eight years of over 
one thousand instances of cruel and horrible tortures inflicted 
on men and women by robbers to compel them to give up 
the secret of their hoarded earnings. The agony that is 
inflicted on the physical body by such demons is the result 
of cunning invention as deliberate as the character of hell 
can make it. And the fiends are not punished. If earth 
were a world of peace and love, there would not be one 
fiend on its surface. Now there are hundreds of millions. 

17. In every department of existence the spirit of the 
demon is seen. Beasts are all savage by nature. Some 
have been tamed by long association with the gentler people, 
but from motives of selfishness, as the help that can be 
rendered by cattle, horses and other animals is coveted. 
Man will be tame to an animal that he wishes to tame, 
yet will use that animal for his savagery against his fellow 
beings. Some of the noblest types of horses are ridden 
by the millions of warriors of the Mohammedan religion 
whose cry of encouragement is: "Paradise will be found 
in the shadow of the crossing of swords." This means 



148 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

that battle, whereby the swords of their own followers are 
crossed with the swords of their enemies, is the threshold 
of heaven ; or in other words, that murder, slaying, tortured 
bodies and hellish minds are the necessary steps to eternal 
happiness and immortality. The motto itself is the brand 
of demon life. The sought for goal is the hope of a demon. 
Nothing more fiendish can be conceived than the doctrine 
that paradise or heaven can be bought by murder. Yet 
there are more millions that live in that light than are 
found in all the civilized nations of earth put together. 

1 8. A band of emigrants left Europe to get rid of op- 
pression. They came to America. Here they found not 
one tame beast; all was savagery. Reptiles, insects, vermin, 
and the barbarous Indians. They lived in the midst of 
demon life of every kind. To-day the savage beasts and 
reptiles have been pushed to the woods, and the Indians have 
been almost exterminated by the hand of civilization. But 
earth when it became the dwelling place of humanity was 
nothing but a dumping ground for the lost souls that were 
compelled to seek hope here amid the most uninviting 
prospects of all the universe. Millions have fallen prey to 
poison. Millions have been slain by wild beasts. Billions 
have been killed by the hand of their fellow beings. What 
greater chain of proof could be wanted to show that this 
earth is the dumping ground of all the sky? 

19. How many billions upon billions have been slain by 
disease? Is sickness, suffering and premature death a 
heritage from a loving God, or a fitting association for 
demon life? If this earth were an abode of peace and a 
mere stamping ground for a better land, there would be no 
necessity for such a chapter as this. There would be no 
reason for all the suffering, all the agony, all the tortures, all 
the malice and hatred that have piled to the height of moun- 
tains in the centuries that have rolled away. Disease is a 
terrible infliction. Yet it is universal on this globe. Its 
very presence is a lie to the idea that the people are created 



THE DUMPING GROUND 149 

originally in such conditions. The mind that made the 
millions of stars and star-worlds is a Master Genius. Im- 
perfections have no place in such a creation, as they are 
wholly unnecessary. There can be no other conclusion 
but that the freedom of each soul has been the undoing 
of some, and that they are here in hell to work themselves 
out by the exercise of the same dominant spirit of liberty 
that brought them here. 

20. Everywhere the evidence is cumulative that this planet 
is filled with demon life. Weeds, vermin, inseces, reptiles, 
savage beasts and foul diseases of both the vegetable and 
animal kingdoms, furnish a ceaseless dirge in the march 
of evil influences that hover about this realm. 

21. The kind of moral power that was brought here with 
the fallen souls is easily seen in the malignant motives of 
the human heart. Revenge is a common trait and will 
blind all the other faculties. Libel and slander, envy, ar- 
rogance, a disdain for the people who are lower in the scale 
of wealth but far more honest than those who, through graft, 
have robbed the great worthy classes of their rightful 
winnings, the wanton waste of time in the debauchery of 
society, the silly and imbecile pleasures of the night-men 
and the night-women who waste life, moral health and the 
hope of happiness in their carousals, all tell the one plain 
story of the demons. 

22. Selfishness is so mean an attribute that it ought not 
to find lodgment in any heart; but it is as nearly universal 
as the air itself. To gratify this passion for gain by unfair 
means, all the moral code is thrown to the winds in the 
belief that there is no one to see or to know what the mind 
and heart conceiveth. So wrongs have been done in the 
name of shrewdness, and robbery has been committed for 
the sake of taking from others what the dishonest heart 
cannot win by its own merits, leaving the innocent victims 
to their griefs. The crafty mind is the demon mind. 

Earth is the dumping ground of the universe. 




150 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

,l>l.l»K^M.KIvlvlvlvl»l«lil,l,l,l^. I. I.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l. l~.~l~l~iTlTl v I - I - 

UNSEEN FUNDS. 

HAT WE CALL A FUND Is a massed col- 
lection of an unseen power; each giving rise to 
a separate fund. It is not in fact set apart from 
the location of other vitalities, but fills the 
i s ether that surrounds the earth in association 
with other massed collections. These may be 
studied by the direct aid of psychic telepathy, 
or may be fully understood by an analysis of the laws which 
control them. For the purposes of the present work we 
will describe them from the latter standpoint. 

LAW. — There is a universal fund of mind that surrounds 
the earth. 

This massed collection of intelligence is found at work in 
the smallest forms of existence, and it is never absent no 
matter how high or low the grades may run. It is known 
that the basis of life is protoplasm. This begins every kind 
of living thing, whether of plant or animal creation. The 
composition of protoplasm is the cell. Every cell has a 
nucleus. Every nucleus has a nucleolus, and every nucleolus 
has an id. Here is held the brain of the drop of matter. 

This brain comes into existence by drawing its intelligence 
from the fund of mind that is universal. Propagation is 
carried on by division. Each cell feeds on the matter 
around it, then grows larger and separates. One becomes 
two. Two become four. Four become eight, and so on. 
This is growth. It is the only way in which a plant, a 
tree, a blade of grass, a drop of blood, and animal or a hu- 
man being can grow. 



UNSEEN FUNDS 151 

The same protoplasm that feeds a plant, also feeds a man. 
The reason why one develops in place of the other is because 
the brain in the cell learns the purpose of its existence and 
executes it accordingly. If a plant is in process of formation, 
the cell will make a plant. If that plant is a rose, the cell 
will make it nothing else. If the rose is a wild one or 
a cultivated one, then the cell must see that the right kind is 
produced. If the cultivated rose is of a special variety, that 
variety alone must be secured. 

Color of flower, shape of leaf, length of stem and kind of 
fragrance, all are locked up in the tiny brain of the id in 
the cell or drop of protoplasm. This cell grows, as we have 
said, by absorbing matter around it; but the matter which 
it absorbs has no brain, no id, no mind. Yet as soon as the 
cell has divided, there are two brains in place of one; and, in 
about twenty-one generations, there will be a million brains 
in place of one. Each will have a share of the fund of 
mind that surrounds the earth. 

In each cell is locked up the whole history of the individual. 
You begin life in a drop of protoplasm so small that it could 
not be seen without the aid of a microscope. Yet in that 
drop was enclosed all that you have grown to be, all the 
characteristics of your mind and body, all the diseases that 
you inherited taints of, if any, all the peculiarities that 
past generations for centuries have handed down to you, all 
you will be on this earth, and the inclination of your per- 
sonality toward one goal or another in the great divide. 

When that cell began its life, it was certainly very small 
to hold so much. Even the soul might be compressed into 
a space as tiny, as size is of less importance than energy. As 
soon as growth began the cell grew, divided and made two ; 
and so on until you were born. Every detail of the won- 
derful body in which you dwell was thought out in that cell ; 
and, as new cells came to add to it, they were given their 
share of the fund of the universal mind. Every drop that is 
large enough to be seen by the naked eye contains countless 



i 5 2 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

billions of such cells; and there are countless billions of big 
drops in your body. When bones were wanted, the brains 
of the cells were alert to build bone. When hair, or skin, or 
nerves, or veins, or organs, or other details were needed, the 
brains of the cells built just what was wanted. Thus the 
mind in the body became a greatly increased mass, sprung 
from one tiny cell. The increase could not have come from 
nothing. It must have come from something. That some- 
thing may be anything you please to call it, and we will 
name it the fund of mind. It is not essential what it is. 
Names are only for convenience. Therefore you may desig- 
nate what furnished the increase of intelligence in the body 
as it grew from the cell to a great organism, and we will 
call it the fund of mind. 

Whatever has cell life, has its part of this fund of mind. 

Every living part of your body is a mass of cells, and each 
has its brain. Where they most congregate we find the 
collective mind, as in the head ; for there must be a centrali- 
zation of power and thought. But the evidence of intelli- 
gence in all parts of the body is abundant, and leaves no 
doubt that a man thinks with his whole being, not alone 
with the brain within the skull. 

In a mass of earth we see nothing that would make a 
peach tree grow in one place and an oak in another. The 
dirt is the same. But let the seed of either be planted, 
and it will open out its germs and send forth a tiny cell. 
One only begins the life of a tree. It grows in the same way 
as does the human cell, and is the same in fact; yet it will 
produce, not a human body, nor a dog, nor a horse, but 
a tree; not any kind of a tree, but the kind that is intended 
from the nature of the seed to be grown. It will take from 
the earth the identical particles that might have gone into the 
oak, and weave them into its own cell-increase to produce 
the peach. 

If the exact variety of an improved peach is wanted, the 
branch is cut off and made to root. This is fed by the same 



UNSEEN FUNDS 153 

soil, cell by cell, and each blind particle of dirt that is drawn 
into the organism will learn what variety of peach is needed, 
and will draw from the fund of mind just what intelligence 
is required, and the new tree will be a counterpart of the old. 

The human brain may take as much from the fund of 
mind as it can use, just as the electric battery is supplied 
from the fund of electricity, as much as it can hold. One 
man draws more than another. Some men use little. The 
collected mass is free to all to take what they can assimilate. 

Thus minds differ in their intelligence. 

Nature herself is an intelligent personality that knows 
every need of humanity, and she is ever present in the great 
mind of the world. 

LAW. — The earth is surrounded by a universal fund of 
demon life. 

A psychic being lives in the ether. Demons are kept 
within range of this planet. They have no tendency heaven- 
ward. -Their faces are turned toward the soil. They are 
not permitted to harass or come near those human beings 
who are seeking escape from their influence. But they 
stand at the side of every wrong doer. 

What evidence is there of these facts? 

Proofs are abundant on every side. The study and prac- 
tice of psychic telepathy will bring complete knowledge of 
these demons to the very door of the investigator. But 
such means of proof need not be resorted to, as we find 
evidence in many other ways. 

In the first place let us talk for a moment with the be- 
liever in religion. You wish to know more about the ques- 
tion of the presence of demon life all around the earth. You 
already have learned that the lost souls have been cast out of 
the sky and that this planet is the dumping ground for 
them. In harmony with this thought is the oft repeated ref- 
erence in the Bible to the devils that gain entrance into the 
lives of men and women. Christ said to one of them: 
" Get thee behind me, Satan." In His ministrations He cast 



154 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

out devils from humanity and these demons went into the 
swine. 

There are many intelligent people to-day, as there have 
always been, who believe that demons infest some lives. 
Then we have the reports of criminals who have declared that 
they have been impelled on to the commission of their deeds 
by personal devils that have come into them. So strong is 
this testimony that it must be accepted as having much 
weight. We could cite case after case that has met with the 
approval of learned investigators where men have been pos- 
itive that they have been in the power of demons. The old 
time expression that is used in the scriptures, " possessed of 
the devil," and " possessed by devils," cannot be taken as a 
figure of speech. 

A brain that is excited by fever or inflamed by drink, 
or that is on the verge of nervous collapse, assumes a magni- 
fying power that is remarkable. In typhoid the brain is 
distorted. Things that actually are seen by the normal eye, 
now grow longer, taller and grotesque in shape; but their 
identity is not lost. Yet when the excited cells are given 
still greater power of vision, beings come before the eyes. 
They are not shapes of things turned into monstrosities; but 
are actual figures of demons. Whence do they come? 

The hasty reply is: " They are imaginary images." How 
can they be imaginary? It is true that they do not exist in 
fact before the eyes when the brain is in health; but the 
distorted optic nerve now is endowed with a keener power 
through the fever that racks and heats the blood; and the 
images that come before it, while they seem to stand forth 
in the room or to move about the sufferer, are viewed only 
by that individual. They may be in the head, inside the 
brain; but that does not make them imaginary. How can 
the sense of sight behold demons that do not exist some- 
where? How can a thing be imagined that has such definite 
shape and is so active? 

Here is a man who has too long indulged in liquor. He 



UNSEEN FUNDS 155 

sees snakes. They are coming to him. Now they crawl up 
his legs, wind themselves about his body, and stifle him by 
tightening their folds around his neck. He is fighting them. 
He avoids the fangs, but strives to drive the body away, 
using almost superhuman strength in the struggle. To him 
these reptiles are real. As all men who have delirium see 
actual beings of some kind, always horrible and demon-like, 
it must be true that the brain is given a power similar to 
that of the hypnotic. He beholds facts that are not known 
by the people about him. He unfolds secrets that are some- 
times very important. In the peculiar condition of the brain 
that attends hypnosis, these unusual powers follow. At this 
writing we have the results of a new case that has been called 
to our personal attention, and of which there can be no 
doubt. A young man who had been hypnotized, was made 
to talk on a charge of theft that had been lodged against a 
servant, who had been arrested. The circumstances were 
against the latter. But the hypnotized young man saw the 
article that had been lost. He went to the place where it 
lay, and handed it to the owner who at once admitted that it 
had been dropped there by accident, and that the servant 
was wholly innocent. 

In preceding chapters in this division we have discussed 
the power of clairvoyance that follows oft repeated uses of 
the hypnotic sleep. The subject takes up any suggestion that 
is given him, and obeys to such an extent that he will perform 
deeds that are impossible to those who control him. In other 
words, the hypnotic is capable of doing things that only a 
psychic power can execute. In a long line of experiments, 
such persons have been told to describe the demons that 
are all about them. They at once proceed to this task, and 
what they reveal corresponds with the visions seen by fevered 
patients, as well as sufferers from delirium tremens and per- 
sons whose nerves are broken down. 

Of all the mediums in the world, about one in a thousand 
is genuine; all the others being skilful frauds, although 



i 5 6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

even they may be partly endowed with clairvoyant gifts. 
The English and American Societies for Psychical Research 
have employed many mediums; and have found a very limited 
number for whose genuineness and reliability they are able to 
vouch without hesitation. 

When a medium is found that commands the full faith of 
scientific men, the revelations made are always astounding; 
and many of them have been found to be not only true but 
of a nature that baffles all explanation except on the theory 
of clairvoyance. Now let any of the genuine mediums be 
asked to interpret the demon life that surrounds the earth, 
and the results are amazing. The medium is at home in 
that circle. Proof after proof is furnished of such life, and 
the demons are similar to those seen by the fevered brain. 

They are abundant everywhere. 

The drunken man who is confronted by a horrible shape, 
is not deluded. The only seemingly unreal thing about it is 
that no one else can see the shape. He beholds it because it 
is there. Others cannot see it because they do not possess the 
inflamed brain that is given the power to peer into the 
psychic atmosphere. 

It would be absurd to say that the horrible image is a 
vagary of the mind, that it dwells only inside his brain. But 
suppose that were true. What of it ? A shape cannot dwell 
within the brain unless it is there. A drop of blood cannot 
contain the form of a giant whose eyes, head, horns, hoofs and 
general appearance are those of a complete being, unless such 
being exists either in the brain or in the air about the suf- 
ferer. 

Snakes, beasts of the most savage mien, spiders that ex- 
ceed in their terrifying make-up the most detestable shapes 
that ever crawled on earth in open life, fiends, devils, dragons, 
and grotesque images are actually present to the fevered 
brain. From them the idols and forms that are worshipped 
in the Orient were designed, as has been claimed by some in- 
vestigators. The gods of mythology must have had some 



UNSEEN FUNDS 157 

instigation, for they were numerous and almost as varied as 
the shapes seen by the drunken man. 

In the early chapters of this book that discuss the nature 
of sound, as well as ghostly sounds and ghostly violence, it 
has been shown that the brain-cells are endowed with a seem- 
ingly strong magnifying power. When applied to sound 
waves, it turns into loud blows the gentlest throbbing of 
the blood vessels. But undue nervous strain is necessary to 
effect this condition. Sound makes use of the air masses. 
Light travels by impulses of the ether. In the ether the 
demons dwell, even occupying solids, as substance is not 
known to them until they are habilitated in bodies of flesh 
and blood. 

These laws being true, it follows that the vision alone 
must recognize the demons. They have no part in sound or 
touch. 

The inflamed brain that magnifies its own sounds into 
blows of violence, can thus make them seem to be created 
sounds; and for convenience it is said that the brain in fact 
creates the sounds. But it does not. The sounds are there. 
No matter how badly frightened the nervous woman is, no 
matter how much over-wrought her nerves are, no matter 
how loudly the vibrations of the blood vessels in her brain 
may seem to pound, or what sounds she may hear, they are all 
actually there although magnified. The brain cannot create 
something out of nothing. 

If there were no pulsations of the veins and no flow of 
blood in and out of the brain, and nothing to be magnified, 
she would sit in absolute silence. What seems to be a total 
absence of sound is a veritable racket to the inflamed or 
frightened and nervous brain. But the sounds are there. 
The normal mind cannot hear them, but the excited brain 
will surely be overwhelmed by them, because they are there. 
It is merely a question of something small to start with, and 
a fevered brain to magnify it to size in the one sense of hear- 
ing. You cannot extract something from nothing. 



158 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

On the same principle the sight of horrible shapes must 
have a basis in fact. That basis may be very small. The 
demons that are seen are present either inside the brain or 
out in the space in front of the individual who beholds them. 
If they are inside the brain, they are of microscopic size, but 
have a complete form and complete intelligence. 

By referring to the early pages of this chapter, an account 
will be found of the tiny cell which holds the intelligence of 
a complete human being, soul, mind, heredity and all the 
characteristics of a coming man, wrapped up in a compass so 
small that it can be seen only by a microscope. If the hu- 
man body can be condensed in a shape so small as that, it 
would not be difficult for a demon to likewise dwell in an 
unseen cell that could come to view only when the inflamed 
power of the brain enlarges it to the mind. 

This claim is based on the supposition that the demons 
are seen inside the brain, and is interposed here for the pur- 
pose of meeting the doubts of the student. In either case the 
demon is a reality. If it is of microscopic size it is real. If 
it is of full grown size it is just as real. Therefore it makes 
no difference in principle what size it has or where it act- 
ually dwells. 

But history, religious knowledge, scientific facts and the 
revelations furnished by psychic telepathy confirm the fol- 
lowing: 

LAW. — Demons co-exist with all earthly matter and life. 

By this is meant that they are of every size, and that they 
are in solids and substances. They simply occupy everything. 
The only exception is the body and home and surroundings 
of the man or woman who is free from them, as will be 
shown in the next division of this book. 

A conception of any psychic condition that has been long 
held by the general world is true in fact, or has some basis. 
Knowledge may not come through the process of reasoning, 
but arrives through inspiration or intuition, or some of the 
powers that surround humanity. 



UNSEEN FUNDS 159 

You cannot turn to the history of any country, whether it 
be religious or common, without finding an overwhelming 
mass of evidence to prove the belief in demons and various 
forms of unseen life. We make full allowance for the cre- 
ations of superstition and the warped science of the dark 
ages; but superstition is a power, and out of its depressing 
influences grew witchcraft, an art that is practiced extensively 
to-day by the negroes of this country. Such influences are 
subdued as higher powers dethrone them, but they have not 
been driven out of the world. 

No one doubts the fact that Milton wrote largely from 
inspiration, as did Shakespeare and other geniuses. In II 
Penseroso, we find the following lines from Milton's pen : 

" Those demons that are found 
In fire, air, flood, or underground, 
Whose power hath a true consent 
With planet or with element" 

Quotation after quotation might be made from this and 
other writers demonstrating the existence of a belief in de- 
mons that has not died out to this day. Christ taught the 
presence of devils and of evil spirits. All mythology is filled 
full to the brim with countless demons and unseen deities that 
are all around humanity. Of course, such evidence is not 
scientific; but it shows that, in an age of grand civilization 
far surpassing the intelligence of our own era, the people, not 
having any other religion, built upon their own experiences. 
There is surely some basis for their immense population of 
demons and deities. 

Human activities are reflections of the unseen powers. 

In sacred lore as well as in the Scriptures themselves, Sa- 
tan is referred to as " the prince of the powers of the air." 
Whether the Bible was inspired or not in the sense usually 
attributed to it, its assertion stands forth as one of the towers 
of strength throughout all the centuries in which the chief 
religion of civilization was developing and taking on its best 



160 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

growth. The fall of man, if it did not occur in heaven, as 
Milton describes, had its enactment on this planet. 

It has occurred somewhere, and that is all that is im- 
portant about it, as far as this present consideration is con- 
cerned. The entire human family has fallen, is debased and 
wretched, save the few here and there who are determined 
to extricate themselves from the bondage of the demons. 

Since it is true that man has fallen, whether from heaven 
or from a better condition that once prevailed on earth, 
there can be no doubt that evil is everywhere on this planet. 
When a child is born, it takes to itself a soul that does not 
and cannot come from heaven, but that fulfils the routine 
of life now being carried along the generations that succeed 
each other. The story of this soul is told in the third di- 
vision of this work. 

LAW. — Crime, dishonesty, insanity and suicide are in- 
stigated by the demons. 

All forms of life that exist about the earth, waiting to be 
born into the body, are eager for the opportunity to take the 
place of those living. The)'- therefore exert a bad influence 
over every human being if they are so permitted. Not one 
person in a million would commit a crime, or would be dis- 
honest, or break down in mind or take life if it were not for 
the sway which the demons have over the minds and pur- 
poses of those whom they can lead into such debasement. 
The idle person is most readily recruited into the army of the 
demons, and falls most easily. The idle poor and the idle 
rich are ripe for evil work. The performance of honest 
duties makes the mind busy and the individual safer. Once 
the shackles of the demons are thrown off, it is hard for 
them to be again placed about the victims. Christ knew 
this when He said : " Get thee behind me, Satan." He was 
addressing the actual prince of devils. It was no figure of 
speech. It was no imagined devil. Such a view is flatly 
contradicted by the statement that He cast out devils, and 
the devils fled into the swine and drove them into the sea. 



UNSEEN FUNDS 161 

There are to-day, and have always been since the birth 
of humanity, three classes of people, divided according to 
their relationship to the influence of demons: 

I. The lowest class are wholly controlled by evil ten- 
dencies; their skull formation and brains showing an incura- 
ble bondage to criminal instincts. They are a menace to 
the world, not only in the generation in which they live, 
but also through their progeny. No attempt is made to pre- 
vent them from sending millions of criminals into the world 
during their lives, and these new recruits to the army of 
wickedness add extra menace to each succeeding age. 

In the old days when wars and capital punishment re- 
moved evil-doers in great numbers, the dangers were less 
than to-day, when crimes grow much faster than the popula- 
tion. The modern mistake is in the belief that born crim- 
inals may be reformed, while criminology shows that such 
a thing is wholly impossible. But sentiment permits lax 
methods; the man who rapes a woman is given a term in 
prison, is then set free, and invariably renews the offence, 
generally ending in murder. Burglars are almost always 
ready to kill when resisted ; yet they are sent to prison when 
convicted, are set free again when the term expires, and in- 
variably renew the crime. There are burglars now free 
who have served several terms. The duty of the public is 
to hold them prisoners for life, or else to execute them. The 
Supreme Court of the United States upholds the right of 
a State to make rape a capital offence, or even an attempt 
at rape. The burglar, or any man who is willing to take 
life when necessary for the purpose of his crime, has no 
place in civilization. Thousands of murders are recklessly 
committed in order to secure a few dollars, and this dis- 
position to kill is on the increase to-day. God's decree is: 
Whoever has it in his heart to take human life in defiance 
of the peace of the world, is already a murderer, and should 
be put to death. It is better to save innocent lives than to 
punish criminals after they have slain their victims. In 



1 62 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

defiance of this principle, the men and women who are 
advocates of mercy to the criminals rather than to their 
victims, are responsible for the fearful increase of murders 
in this country. 

2. The next class includes men and women who are 
alternately swayed by the demons on the one hand, and 
their psychic tendencies on the other. If you teach them 
to cultivate the latter, they make good citizens, and some 
of the world's best inhabitants are found in this class. If 
you arouse their evil natures, the demons at once take 
possession and havoc ensues in their lives. Some men are 
good only when all skies are fair; they are contemptible 
when things go wrong. They swing on the pendulum of 
events, escaping the influence of the demons " if fortune 
smiles on their paths," as they say. Many experiments may 
be made with this class of people; and anyone can always 
succeed in sending them under the power of demons. Here 
is a typical assertion of a man of intelligence, who is easily 
made ugly: "Why did you say that to me? I felt the 
very devil coming into my heart when I heard that remark." 
Many a wife has seen her husband in the control of the 
demons when he is displeased with her; too well she knows 
the meaning of this chapter. 

3. The final class includes all persons who realize the 
presence and power of the demons, and who keep far away 
from them. They are strong to resist temptation. A man 
advertised for a coachman and three applicants came to him. 
— "How close to the precipice yonder can you drive?" — 
The first coachman tried it, went to the very edge and was 
killed by falling over. — The second coachman drove very 
near the edge, and at times was in peril, but escaped without 
harm. — The third coachman turned his back on the preci- 
pice and drove in the other direction. That was the man 
who was employed. 



163 



THIRD GRAND DIVISION 

OF 

UNSEEN POWERS 



THE GREAT DIVIDE 



164 



THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 

The structure of the present system should be carefully 
studied by every reader who wishes to master the complex 
problems of life. 

The first division of the work relates to the physical 
mind and the physical body; ending with glimpses of the 
psychic world through the curtain that separates the two. 

The next division brings us into the midst of the psychic 
operations as far as they have association with the physical 
mind and the physical body. 

We now have reached the ridge of highest life on earth, 
as far up as we can ascend and still drag with us the muddy 
vestment of our physical nature. Looking back over the 
past we see the valley out of which our studies have led us. 
Looking forward we find only blue skies, fair gardens, 
bright uplands and gentle peace. 

Which way shall we proceed? 

The footsteps easily fall back in any road that requires 
ascent; but the forward landscape has no difficulties to those 
who have gone thus far in the journey. 

The one requirement is that each student of this book 
shall have made the propositions a part of his or her daily 
thoughts until they are fully absorbed. To a reader this 
is a book of reading. To a student this is a book of study. 
But to a traveler along life's highway this is a book of 
light. It helps all other duties, no matter what they are, 
and conflicts w T ith none. It brings harmony into any legiti- 
mate or normal belief, and assists in making clear the 
troubling enigmas of existence. 

Review is necessary. 

Study, read, think and absorb all truths until they shine 
forth in your daily life. 




i65 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 



7i\ s^~ 

DOUBLE LIFE. 



N EVERY HAND the proofs of two kinds 
,of life are abundant. The man who fails to 
acquire a belief in the future existence, is sure 
that this life is all there is for him. He goes 
'down to his grave thinking that he will not 
wake again ; that his body will be food for 
worms, which may be true, and that when it 
has dissolved he will have gone back to earth. The particles 
of material that pass into the general fund of soil will un- 
doubtedly serve to fertilize some patch of sod or nourish a 
tree; but will never again live as a new being. 
As far as the body is concerned, he is correct. 
Science tells us that in the body a vitality lives; also a 
mind ; and something that is neither, but that passes out at 
the moment of death. Substantial proof has been obtained 
of this last fact, as will be seen by referring to the first 
division of this book. 

LAW. — All life is divided into two parts, physical and 
psychic. 

That which is physical is material only. It is that part 
that will be resolved into earth after the body dies. What- 
ever lives on is psychic. It is a question whether or not the 
mind will survive. In dying, if it does in fact perish, it 
may hang for a period in suspense before it dissolves. The 
probability is that only the psychic mind lives after death. 

What we call the psychic life is a finer form of the phys- 
ical. This has been explained in a preceding chapter. Light 
is really physical, but is called psychic because it is the im- 



166 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

pulse of ether waves, and is associated with that division of 
existence. So the subconscious mind is psychic. And so 
must be the soul or spirit. 

LAW. — There are two kinds of interpretation, the phys- 
ical and the psychic. 

The physical form of interpretation is that which depends 
on the proofs offered by the five senses. If a flower has a 
certain odor, the translation of that odor is made by the sense 
of smell and conveyed to the brain. Without the sense of 
smell there could be no interpretation of that fragrance, and 
it would be wholly lost on the individual. The same is true 
of the sense of taste. Some things are bad for the health and 
they are generally recognized by the palate, in case they es- 
cape the sentry of the nose. Some things attract the appetite. 
Some articles of food or drink appeal more strongly than 
others because the sense of taste so interprets them. 

These are physical powers. 

Sound is merely the action of air-waves on the nerves of 
hearing, which carry some idea to the brain. It may be dis- 
cord, or painful noise like the scratching of a nail on glass; 
or it may be sweet music ; it may be the gentle voice of love, 
or the stern tones of command, or the growl of hatred. It 
all depends on the interpretation given the air-waves to the 
brain by the nerves of hearing. 

Touch and sight are likewise made to wait upon the agents 
of the mind for their recognition. 

If a thought is spoken or written it must find scope in 
words, and these have meaning. They depend on sight or 
sound to carry the words, and the latters are tools of meaning 
which the brain will understand. 

All this is physical interpretation. 

Now if you are in the room with another person and he 
says nothing, although he is thinking hard and rapidly, you 
might give a small fortune if you were able to know what is 
passing through his mind. His thoughts are coming in 
w T aves into your own brain, but as they enter the subconscious 



DOUBLE LIFE 167 

mind you cannot interpret them, and so they are as dead to 
yon as if they had not actually become your property. 

It is a well proved fact that the thoughts of other persons 
are continually entering your brain. 

You think, talk, write and plan in the words which belong 
to your physical existence. But the waves that carry 
thoughts are ether impulses, and the brain that receives them 
is in the subconscious realm. It is like having a fortune in 
a safe which you cannot unlock. You possess the subcon- 
scious mind, and the thoughts of other people are entering 
that mind every minute. But you cannot get them into your 
physical mind, and the latter is all that you can understand. 

LAW. — The physical mind cannot interpret the thoughts 
of the psychic mind. 

The reason why this interpretation cannot be carried on is 
that the two minds operate in two languages. The physical 
mind understands the alphabet, say of twenty-six letters, and 
the words that are composed of that alphabet, say less than 
eight hundred, except in cases of excellent education. No 
people on earth understand those words unless they belong to 
the nation that speaks them or have also learned to use them. 
Even the greatest of languages is a small affair to the sub- 
conscious mind that can talk not only to the people every- 
where in the world, but also to all the peoples in all the uni- 
verse. The English speech is quite insignificant compared 
with so extensive a tongue as the psychic language. 

There is not one word in the latter that is found in the 
English or any other language of earth. It thus appears why 
the physical mind is helpless when it is in possession of the 
thoughts of others. 

We possess those thoughts and we do not know them. 

Yet they are seeking at all times to break through our 
physical minds, and they do break through to a very slight 
extent and stand forth in the language of the latter mind. 
This is then called thought transference or physical telep- 
athy. 



168 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

It is probable that fifty times a day the thoughts of other 
minds actually get some kind of faint interpretation in our 
own, in yours, in everybody's. They are there all the while 
in full power, but simply lack the means of being interpreted 
in the physical brain. If only some system could be invented 
whereby they can be given the language of that mind, then 
thought transference would be a perfect art and would revo- 
lutionize all forms of life on earth. 

How many times, when you are walking with a companion, 
he utters some thought that you were about to speak, and you 
have said : " Why, that is what I was just going to say. 
How strange! Those very words were on my tongue's end 
and you took them out of my mouth. Did you know that I 
was thinking of the very same thing, too ? " And all that. 

Case after case has been reported on this power of the 
mind. Men, who have spent years in investigating psychic 
laws, have found the most abundant and reliable evidence on 
this one point, the passage of thoughts in silence between two 
minds. Says a very able scientist and author, who also holds 
a high place as a university professor in England : 

" Of all the evidence received in the past eighteen years, 
that which proves the passing of thoughts from one mind to 
another is the most common and the most convincing." 

Therefore, while the physical mind cannot interpret the 
thoughts of the psychic mind as an open book, the latter is 
seeking all the time to break through into the former and 
does succeed very often ; needing only greater attention in or- 
der to be recognized more frequently; just as the other psy- 
chic powers are breaking through the physical faculties as is 
described in the final chapter of the first division of this 
book. It may be due to accident, or to greater sensitiveness 
of the nerves at times, or to a fixed purpose on the part of 
nature. 

Now comes a remarkable explanation with which we are 
not yet prepared to agree ; but we wish every member of the 
Psychic Society to assist in carrying on the investigation so 



DOUBLE LIFE 169 

that the truth may sooner or later be known. It is true 
that there are two minds, the physical and the psychic. It 
is true that the physical mind has one language and the psy- 
chic another. It is true that the former cannot understand 
the latter, as a general rule. It is true that the latter is 
seeking to break through into the former. All these things 
are known with absolute certainty to be true. 

But the following explanation goes a step beyond what we 
are willing to assert in this stage of our history: 

Inasmuch as the psychic mind is seeking all the time or 
much of the time to break through into the physicial mind, 
and also inasmuch as the language of one differs from the 
language of the other, i-t must be reasonable to believe that 
what is known as intuition, instinct and inspiration, occurring 
as they do in the periods of normal wakefulness, are the 
knockings or efforts of the psychic mind to convey its infor- 
mation to the ordinary mind. To sustain this reasoning ; the 
cases are cited of the strange feelings that attend a fore- 
warning, or a presentiment. 

" I have had a presentiment to-day," says a woman, and 
she tells how vague it is. Another woman says : " I have a 
strange feeling that something is to happen," but she can- 
*not interpret it. Another woman seems to hold back from 
entering into some bargain or transaction because she has a 
feeling that it is not all right. It may be true that the 
language of the psychic mind is partly in the feelings, and 
we all know that only the commonest feeling can be put into 
words ; all others being what is called inexpressible. 

Inspiration can tell the human part of man many things 
that will lead him on to wonderful achievements in this 
world. It speaks with a greater degree of certainty than 
either presentiments or intuition. Instinct is merely a blind 
leader, compelling the individual to obey. It is undoubtedly 
a low form of psychic power. 

If inspiration could have full sway, man would be a god. 

It is often made active under the influence of excitement. 



170 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

In a nervous, highly tense and well-balanced religious life, 
inspiration will open up the heavens and such a book as 
Revelation will result. The truth of that writing cannot 
be denied, no matter whether you examine it from the 
standpoint of science, ethics, reasoning or doctrinal theology. 
Revelation, and all the religious part of the Bible can be 
conclusively proved by the facts now known to psychic te- 
lepathy, or by the ordinary laws of advanced science, such as 
is required to convince the hard-headed investigators of to- 
day. Yet this could not be said with equal certainty ten 
years ago. In fact then and for many generations of in- 
vestigation the trend of the reasoning faculties was against 
such a conclusion. 

From all parts of a great country all roads lead to its 
capital. 

From all the fields of study and investigation, all paths 
draw to one focus, — the efforts of the psychic mind to break 
through into the physical thoughts and there find interpreta- 
tion. 

The poet who feels that great ideas and sublime pictures 
are taking form in his soul, knows that some power is at 
work within him. In the case of Poe, of Byron, and of many 
other geniuses whose bodies fell away to give place to their 
psychic tendencies, we see the difficulty of maintaining the 
genius and the plain physical existence. In the catalepsy 
of Napoleon, of Caesar, of Alexander, and of mighty leaders 
of the world in every department and profession, we see the 
sleep that dulls the conscious mind in order to open up the 
subconscious. In the lesser instances where this power is 
used for impracticable purposes, the same closing out of one 
mind in order to open the other is witnessed with wonder- 
ment. 

Shakespeare must have walked largely in the psychic 
world. 

Of him it is said that he is the only genius that the world 
has ever produced who has not left one written letter, one 



DOUBLE LIFE 171 

authentic message, or one recognizable act, although he lived 
within comparatively recent times. The letters of the great 
men of one and two thousand years ago, are now read ; but 
Shakespeare left not a word. The will that is attributed to 
him was not in his handwriting. He has shut off all sources 
of tracing his identity. This is strange for the man who is 
sung as the " thousand-souled bard." He wrote not for one 
age but for all time. His works and his influence are im- 
mortal. 

The absence of all evidence from personal letters and acts 
is taken to mean that some other man wrote the plays under 
that name. It is argued that, if he actually lived, and was 
the man of Stratford, he would have written at least one 
letter to some friend of whom he must have had many. 
Here reason fails. Shakespeare was a man who dwelt 
largely in the psychic world, and succeeded in drawing from 
its fields the beauty, the eloquence, the splendor and the 
royal magnificence of thought and feeling, putting them into 
the language of the physical mind and embellishing them 
with the garlands of exquisite phrases. He was not of the 
physical world, except in moments of respite. Letters to 
friends could not be the product of the inner mind, and he 
had little time to write anything else. 

But he walked in groves and fields, along vales, by the 
foothills, on the mountain side, in the deep forests, beside 
the running brooks, against the banks of rushing rivers, in 
the calm peace of dells, and through the tempestuous fury of 
storms, alone in his masterwork, knowing the delights of a 
life that is as far from earth as this globe is distant from the 
courts of heaven. Thus many human beings dwell in a 
partly inspired existence. 

On every hand are evidences of the psychic mind seeking 
to push its way through the barrier that closes it out from the 
physical world. It is not necessary to enter into a trance 
state to find it out. On the other hand there is admission 
into the psychic world for every man and woman who un- 



172 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

derstands that this earth is the choosing ground for the fate 
that is to be selected. 

You are the architect of your destiny, the arbiter of your 
own doom. 

LAW. — In the psychic world all thoughts, feelings and 
purposes are an open book. 

In this physical form of life they are certainly pretty well 
closed. We invent microscopes and feel sure that we will 
not find the indivisible atom ; and behold it ceases to show the 
secrets when it is too powerful a magnifier, because the atom 
is a part of the very light that shines on the plate. We can- 
not use the agency as an aid to discover the thing of which 
the agency is built. On the other hand we make the largest 
telescopes, and say now we will look on the surface of the 
planets and stars and peep into the very homes of the peoples 
that dwell there ; but the most we can see is the coarser out- 
lines of what is revealed by the smaller glasses. 

We hunt in the growing plasm and find the cell to be the 
basis of life, but we cannot get farther than the seat of intel- 
ligence in that cell. We supposed for a long time that the 
four leading elements of the universe, oxygen, nitrogen, hy- 
drogen and carbon, made up the cell from which all animal, 
plant and human bodies were created ; and so we got them 
together in their right proportions and tried to build a being 
from them. But that humble beginning, great as it seemed 
in comparison with the dark that preceded it, was so simple, 
so small, so trifling that it is not even the starting point of 
life itself. 

By dint of straining and struggling and toiling in the 
midnight vigils, we found the id, the home where the brain 
of the cell dwells; and we thought to expose its nature; but 
it throbbed on while we sat helpless. The human stomach 
has been placed under a pane of glass during a surgical op- 
eration that saved the life of the patient. While thus open 
to view, the process of digestion has been seen and studied. 
The rough fibrous lining of the organ has been seen to put 



DOUBLE LIFE 173 

out its fingers and tear the food into shreds, thus macerating 
it for assimilation with the blood. But this is a physical 
operation. 

The skull of a man has been laid bare, and the uninjured 
brain has been seen to do its work; The acids and juices 
flow over the surface of the convolutions, and excite them to 
thought. They vibrate and throb and pulsate, while the 
mind takes in and gives out knowledge, plans, schemes and 
takes wide flights in the realm of reason. Now we think the 
secret is learned at last. But the presence of the intelligence 
is not seen. What it is remains a mystery. The soul is well 
nigh a sealed book. What preceded our birth and what fol- 
lows death, is as closely guarded by the sentinels of fate as 
any facts can be; and man searches, delves, theorizes and 
falls to sleep dismayed. 

There is an apparent reason for this secrecy. 

The fallen man is made to rise by his own initiative. 
When he fell he lost his right to communicate with the be- 
ings that were left behind in the heavens. He will not know 
them again until he works out his new destiny. The curtain 
is drawn over his vision and a barrier is lifted between his 
physical consciousness and his psychic mind. He is given 
both in order that he may have hope ; for, if he were only a 
conscious organism his fate would be sealed when the grave 
closed over him. His destiny is therefore linked with the 
hope that reposes in his psychic mind. 

This plan will probably continue as long as he has any des- 
tiny yet unsolved. 

On the contrary the psychic world is an open book. 

Its thoughts are known to all its inhabitants; and they 
live on earth as well as elsewhere. Its mind is like a glass 
case enveloping a mass of intricate machinery, every move- 
ment of which is seen by the eye. The child beholds trie 
hands of the watch move and record the passing of time. 
He wonders what makes them move, and no one opens the 
case to show him. So to him it is a mysterious proceeding. 



174 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

At length the watchmaker sets the works in glass and all is 
visible. People of the psychic world live in glass houses. 
Their minds are open and known. Their thoughts are all as 
visible as if they were written. Their motives, plans, pur- 
poses and schemes are like the bulwarks of a city; plain to 
all who care to look upon them and read what they import. 

LAW. — The psychic mind knows all the thoughts of the 
physical mind. 

The knowledge referred to is a two-edged sword ; it works 
both ways. The physical consciousness does not know what 
is in the psychic mind unless the thoughts of the latter oc- 
casionally break through the barrier as is the case in telep- 
athy, intuition, instinct, inspiration, presentiments, premoni- 
tions and other manifestations of the same class. 

What is going on in your physical mind, which is the seat 
of ordinary intelligence, is fully known to your psychic 
mind ; but the reverse is not true. What is going on in the 
brain of every human being is known to your psychic mind ; 
but, as you have no interpreter to translate one into the 
other, your ordinary intelligence is not aware of the oper- 
ations, and so, like the waves of the ocean, they beat out 
their vibrations on the shores of an unresponsive realm. 

The many laws and facts set forth in this chapter open 
now the way to the building of deeper and grander structures 
in the plan of this work. 

At no stage of the progress of our study has any matter 
been left to doubt or theory. The proofs have been con- 
clusive and there is no opportunity to challenge any law or 
statement. More than this, they are all in harmony with the 
prevailing opinions and beliefs of every intelligent people on 
the globe. They fit in every doctrine that is basic. They 
conform to the inspiration of the great writers in all the 
centuries. They afford a complete explanation to the prob- 
lems that have puzzled the mind of scholar, sage or theo- 
logian. The more they are considered the more clear they 
become. 



175 




CHAPTER XXIX 



1 

MEANING OF BIRTH. 1 

I I 



HAT IS THE PURPOSE of being born in 
the physical body will now claim our attention 
for a chapter. We must start with a review 
of the preceding chapters in the socond division 
of this book. This can be done by the reader 
without iteration here, as it would merely fill 
pages for nothing. The first great fact to be 
recalled is that the earth is surrounded by a fund of demon 
life. There are bad demons and neutral demons. There 
are no good demons ; for, if they were good, they would have 
worked out their destiny and have passed beyond control of 
the leash of earth. 

A parent who brings into the world a child after such 
parent has been freed from demon control, places in the life 
of that child a neutral demon ; it will itself be free if it dies 
before it falls into the ways of the, evil demons. 

So on the same principle every human being that does not 
fall into evil influence, will be freed. 

But these are speculations, and our work is with facts. 
The demon life that surrounds the earth is awaiting op- 
portunity to be born into a physical body so that it may be 
given the right to seek to free itself. In order that there 
may be such a chance, the earth has been formed of soil and 
protoplasm given to that soil out of which a living organism 
might take shape and grow. A fund of mind has also been 
thrown around the world, as well as a fund of vitality, of 
electricity and other powers, suited to the needs of a life tak- 
ing on earth as its garment. 



176 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

From the lap of earth we are all sprung. Ashes to ashes 
is the fate of that body. There is not a particle of the 
physical organism that is not earth, earthy. Whatever 
is physical we can see with the eye or the microscope. The 
purpose of it all is to afford the soul of the demon the cloth- 
ing of flesh with, which he can grow and have his opportunity. 
How many times it is given to him, is immaterial. It is at 
least his once. He fell from a better estate. Of this there 
is no doubt, and few doubters living or that have ever lived. 
Having fallen, he comes to earth, the dumping ground of 
the universe, the hell of all creation, and here awaits the 
chance to take on the robe of flesh. This means that he 
must be born, and it is the meaning of being born. 

Certain laws are made to give him birth and progress. 
The starting point is the cell. It is guarded and protected. 
He is cared for by nature and instinct until he is able to 
look after himself ; then he is let go, and the rest of the affair 
is in his hands. He can do with himself as he pleases, and 
can also do pretty much as he pleases with the rest of man- 
kind, for he is living in hell in this world, and demon life 
predominates. 

LAW. — The fund of life out of which a person is born 
is general. 

It is not a fact that the identity of the soul is main- 
tained after the fall and the casting out of heaven. If you 
are born you come from a general fund of demon life. You 
have not, as an individual, been alive before on earth; but 
the fund out of which you are produced has many times sent 
into a body of flesh the life essence that you possess. There 
could be no other method. 

A family of fourteen persons were buried on a farm in a 
private plot. One alone survived. He married, had ten 
children by two wives, and they all lived. By some mistake 
following the ravages of war, the original fourteen graves 
were torn up, the bodies were mingled with the soil, even the 
bones decaying to a great extent, and the family of two 



MEANING OF BIRTH 177 

parents and ten children ate the vegetables, the grain and 
fruits that grew from this land. There is not the slightest 
doubt that every one of the original fourteen members of the 
family were food in changed form, and in some portions, 
particle for particle, for the bodies of the others who fol- 
lowed. 

An army of two hundred thousand soldiers fell on the 
soil of Russia following the invasion by Napoleon. They 
were not given burial. For the most part they merely en- 
riched the soil from which great crops were raised and the 
food taken for others to eat. One million Persians fell in the 
olden time, occupying a rather narrow compass of ground, 
which was fertilized by their bodies. Their own identical 
flesh passed into other bodies. 

But this is the story of change, or death, of birth, and of 
the process of the ages. It is well understood by all thought- 
ful persons and needs no sustaining data. 

Not so well understood, but equally as well proved, is the 
fact that the fund of soul life that enters into the born hu- 
man being, comes from a general fund of soul life, called de- 
mon life, that is as abundant as the earth in which it must 
take form and develop. 

The earth is a physical fund. Flesh is earth and nothing 
else. It is taken from the soil, and returns to the fund 
from which it is derived. Blood is earth likewise. It is 
coming and going every day in the building up and the break- 
down of the body. 

There is a fund of electricity that surrounds the earth. 
If some of it is caught and stored it goes back to its fund 
as soon as it is released. 

There is a fund of vitality that attends all kinds of life, 
from which supplies are drawn as needed. When cattle are 
killed this vitality is a marked force, and many sickly per- 
sons have been restored to good health by staying near by to 
receive some of the vitality that otherwise would all pass 
into its, fund; for it is easier for an invalid to take some of 
12 



i 7 8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the passing energy that the cattle give up, than to fight for 
it against the human race after such vitality has been scat- 
tered. It is easier to secure gold that lies in heaps extracted 
from the ground, than it is to dig and wash and pick out the 
scattered particles. 

So many tests and measurements have been made of the 
passing vitality from dying cattle that no person familiar with 
the facts doubts the existence of a general fund of vitality, 
out of which comes what each person can assimilate, and to 
which all that die must yield what they have. 

Likewise the fund of life out of which a person is born is 
general. For a long time we thought that the fund of vital- 
ity might be proved to be the only kind of life that dwelt in 
the body. It seemed also as though the energy that passed 
from the body at death was the only life within it. But 
escaping vitality is now thoroughly and conclusively proved 
to be evanescent, flying quickly into its general fund, and 
is closely akin to electricity, which in the same manner flies 
to its fund. But the soul is a complete and imperishable be- 
ing that makes its existence clearly manifest, and about the 
separate entity of which at this date there cannot be enter- 
tained the shadow of a doubt. 

LAW. — The fund of life consists of every kind of de- 
mon nature. 

When the lost beings fell out of heaven, they were con- 
signed to this planet as a special abode. They arrived here 
at a time when the earth was ripe to receive them. Before 
that time there was no existence of any kind whatever here. 
Not even a tree or blade of grass existed. The fallen beings 
entered into a general fund which adopted as its basis the 
protoplasmic cell. From this ' cell all human beings are 
created. From the same cell all animal life takes its start. 
From the same cell all vegetable life has its origin. 

Before man can exist, there must be animal life to precede 
him, and before animal life can exist, there must be vegetable 
life to precede it. One eats the other. The animal eats the 



MEANING OF BIRTH 179 

plant structure, and man eats the animal as well as the plant 
structure. The cell of protoplasm that finds its way into 
the blade of grass, passes thence into the steer, and its flesh 
enters the body of man. It comes out as effete matter, no 
longer protoplasm, for it has carried the intelligence of its 
nucleus into the organism of man, and is now dissolved into 
its elements. Thus life proceeds. 

The protoplasmic cell is therefore the basis of all forms 
of life, the goal of which is the human body. No higher 
being ever has lived on earth, and there is not the slightest 
indication that it will. 

We find this demon fund excessively abundant in the 
early history of the globe. Animals and vegetation were of 
gigantic proportions. 

As humanity became more abundant the fund was required 
to supply its life; and as there is a general freedom from the 
leash of this world, the fund will grow still smaller. 

If all the animals and all the vegetation of a hundred 
thousand years ago were to be taken account-of-stock of, we 
would find that, as compared with all the life of every kind 
now existing here, there had been a decided decrease. Some 
of the fund of life has left the earth, never to return. It has 
been freed. 

Each soul, although mingled in the general fund, awaits 
its turn to be born, so that it may have the opportunity to 
take up the story of its final fate. No more human beings 
can come into birth than there are parents to produce them. 
Each mated pair may bring one or two, or more children 
into being. If every mated pair on earth were to become 
parents as often as possible, it is likely that the whole fund 
of demon life would soon be exhausted, and the earth would 
be peopled with billions who are seeking to throw off the 
bondage of this hell. 

But the channels of parentage are now fixed. Nature 
will not permit it to cease, but does not hurry or crowd it. 
Writers who have been engaged in experiments on growing 



i8o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

vegetation tell the public that some of the elements needed 
to maintain growth are being rapidly and mysteriously re- 
duced, and will soon be exhausted. This would mean that 
vegetation would in time cease, and the channels of further 
parentage and growth would be limited accordingly unless 
some other means of supplying the body are found. 

The first condition of the fund of life was terribly demo- 
niac. 

Every kind of animal that came into being was a monstros- 
ity, and there were few small insects. As man increased and 
used more of the fund, the animals became of small size, 
and the insects much smaller. Since the progress has con- 
tinued, the animals have become less ferocious, even the wild 
beasts and the reptiles and vermin are not as savage. Their 
numbers have become less year by year. Smallness prevails. 
Every nation and every people tells of the early history of 
their race when their men and women were giants. Fossil 
remains indicate that there were giants in all the species, in- 
cluding man. Trees and leaves and plants were gigantic, as 
is easily proved by geology. 

Almost every year of the present era some new kind of 
small insect is discovered. Pests are being fought now when 
a generation ago they were not known at all. Smallness is 
the sign of the times. It means that the fund of life thut 
surrounds the world is being used more and more for the 
building of the bodies of human beings, and less and less for 
the animals. Indeed ninety-eight per cent, of the latter have 
been exterminated. 

When w r e compare the vitality of a hundred thousand 
years ago with that now prevailing, including all that 
lives in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we are quickly 
impressed with the fact that it is being exhausted. Learned 
men say it is due to the weakening of the earth which is 
getting old, and will some day be played out, and be- 
come a dead orb floating in the sky. This is not true. 

Nothing is wasted in the universe. 



MEANING OF BIRTH 181 

The life that is lessening on this globe is passing out into 
the other worlds. Of this there are many forms of proof. 

Birth is only a process whereby a soul from the fund 
of life may be clothed with earth and grow to a being 
capable of determining its own fate. 

As a body of flesh comes from the ground and is made 
up of the soil into which other bodies of flesh have entered 
and become mingled in the general fund, so the entity of 
the soul has come out of a general fund. If it were 
otherwise, the same being would live over and over again. 
As it is there is some part of a former being in the new 
born body, but it is not re-incarnation. It is merely a 
new mold from old material. The mind, as Victor Hugo 
says with so much force, seems to have been born over 
and over again and retains but faintly its recollection of 
its old time bodies. But that is speculation and need not 
be discussed. 

There are cases where a pre-natal recollection has been 
followed into some proof of a previous existence for the 
same individual on this earth. They are not conclusive 
proof of the fact however. Many such instances have been 
the subject of investigation by our Society, and some are 
still pending. We wish every person who becomes a mem- 
ber of the Psychic Society to aid us when there is a 
possibility of further proof being obtained ; for some have 
made a positive claim that there is important evi- 
dence waiting to be investigated. As the matter now 
stands it would be unwise to make any assertion in posi- 
tive terms for or against the theory that the same be- 
ing has lived before as an identical individual. If our 
members are active and can bring to our attention any 
genuine evidence, or can assist us in pursuing the matter 
we may be able to secure proofs that will be convincing. 
At the present time we do not believe that the same 
person has lived before as a separate identity. 

Two recent cases have been reported on out of over 



182 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

forty altogether; and they are but stepping stones toward 
the conclusion that at first seems warranted. 

In one case a very young woman was travelling in 
England. As she came near a very old house, she sud- 
denly said : " I once lived here." Then she described 
many localities, and gave the history of the times when she 
was there, as she claimed. She was in fact born in 
America and it was conclusively proved that this was her 
first crossing of the ocean. Only Americans were with 
her, and she reached the locality in question less than 
twenty-four hours after she landed in England. She had 
not talked with any persons who could have offered any 
information of the history of the place. 

As she described the scenes of her childhood, an old 
man who stood by listening, suddenly exclaimed : " I was 
a lad at the time you were here. But it was your mother. 
You are the image of her. The old stone house that you 
say stood there at the brook, was torn down well nigh 
onto fifty years ago. I helped to destroy it." . Incident 
after incident was stated, old inhabitants were invited to 
the scene and they confirmed the story. Some of them 
remembered a young girl just like the one talking. Some 
members of a society heard of the strange account and 
pursued the matter privately; and to their surprise they found 
that this girl's mother and grandmother had in fact lived 
there; the former having crossed the ocean before the young 
woman was born. 

Of the present case there can be no doubt as to the 
reliability of the testimony. But what kind of a con- 
clusion shall be drawn? One swallow does not make a 
summer. One case cannot set up a new law. There is 
another case like it occurring in Germany, that is fully 
sustained as to reliability of account, and freedom from 
connivance with others. Thus these two cases make a 
stepping stone toward a line of proof. But the field is 
too new for further discussion. If the facts related by 



MEANING OF BIRTH 183 

the young woman who found the playgrounds of a child- 
hood are true, and they are so admitted by the severest 
investigators, then it seems that somehow this woman had 
knowledge of a prior existence that occurred fifty years 
before the time she visited the locality. It is possible that 
she inherited a memory of those da)^s from her grandmother. 
The old man said it was her mother who played there. 
But the ages of the women, as afterwards investigated, 
showed that it must have been her grandmother. So she 
either inherited the memory from two generations back, 
or else she actually lived there herself two generations be- 
fore. 

If the latter supposition were true, she must have lain 
insensible for the intervening generation, or was living in 
some other human body. We do not believe that either 
conculsion is the correct solution. 

We do not know. 

It is said by many persons that there have been 
thousands of such cases in the various part of the civilized 
world which have never been investigated. There are 
numerous other problems that call for attention. These 
matters accumulate so fast that a large membership is 
needed in the Psychic Society in order to help push the 
investigation to successful results. 

No line of study is as important. 

In fact you can put together all the learning in the 
world, all the books that have been written, all the work 
of college and university, and you will find nothing that 
will compare in importance with the facts that are now 
being sought by societies such as this. 

It is the highest form of education. 

A duty rests on each individual to assist in arousing a 
wide spread interest in the study. Let us help in every 
way to reach a line of conclusions that will be so strongly 
founded in fact as to defy all doubt. On themes like 
these the mind longs for the truth, and the whole truth. 




184 



CHAPTER XXX. 

. I . ii. i i l i i i 1T1 i i i i * i i i i i i i i i i i i 1T1T1 iTiTi i~~~.~l~~ 

PARENTAGE. 1 

I P 

-:-:--:--:--:-:-:--:-:--:-;-;"!-:-:--;-:--:-:-:--:-!~:-:~:-!T^-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:":-:-!-Fri: 



S HAS BEEN STATED In a preceding 
chapter parentage is a channel only by which 
demon life may become connected with the 
body of earth and thus begin existence. This 
channel may delay for a long time the freeing 
of the soul from the leash of earth. At the 
beginning of human existence here, all life 
was of the demon class, pure and straight, without a 
redeeming ray of light. We see the pages of geology lying 
open before us, and they bear on their faces records that 
cannot be misinterpreted. 

Could we stand now in the presence of the first humanity 
of one hundred thousand years ago, we would see a mass 
of people of every sort, all savage, all cruel, all with tusks 
in their mouths and claws in their hands, all tearing the 
flesh of wild animals and birds, all disposed to quarrel, to 
fight, to kill, to torture, to enter into barbaric rites, and 
make their dwelling place on earth a hideous hell. This 
was the first born of the planet. The evidence is ample, 
in fact more than ample. The time when they lived is 
known by the place their remains now occupy; or where 
their fossils, as geology states, are found with reference to 
the accumulation of the debris of the many centuries that 
have passed. 

Skulls, forms of their bodies stamped in the strata where 
they died, the implements they used, all tell a story that 
cannot be disputed. 

Here was the first born of earth. 



PARENTAGE 185 

Not the creation of a loving God, for the Maker of 
the universe never conceived such forms, such natures, 
such devils. Only good can spring from that fountain 
head; and there was nothing good in the first born of 
earth. It took nearly a hundred thousand years before 
the good began to break through the demon life that 
occupied all the globe; but the good was there and it 
was destined to come to light. 

It is growing all the time. 

Here is unmistakable evidence of the fact that the 
humanity that came to earth were doomed to this place 
as a hell; that the planet is the dumping ground of the 
whole sky; and that these beings, having undertaken to 
rebel against the government of heaven as has been so 
well set forth by the inspired Milton, were cast out and 
left to work out their own destiny here. They were devils, 
but they were immortal. 

We see the kind of spirits that left the sky to suffer 
their isolation here. They are exiles. 

To have lived on this orb at any time except the last 
hundred years or so, means to have been in the midst 
of demons without hope of being extricated. To have 
lived six thousand years ago, means to have been in the 
midst of savages where nothing but cruelty and torture 
were possible in the treatment of one another. The light 
had not begun to break. To have lived here fifty thousand 
years ago, means to have dwelt in the very bosom of a mass 
of hideous life such as the fever of delirium now brings be- 
fore the gaze of the demented or inflamed brain. 

Improvement has been going on all along the ages. 

But the demons are still abundant. They are less fre- 
quent in the forms of beasts and humanity than ever be- 
fore, but the air and all the earth teems with them. They 
await their turn and time to be born. As far as the dis- 
position of the demon is concerned, it is still in the vast 
majority all over the globe. It is in the child, in the 



186 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

man and in the woman. Not in all, for the sweeter 
impulses are also at work, and the light is breaking. 

If there is any person who doubts the assertion that 
demon spirits are everywhere present about the earth, let 
him subscribe for one year to a daily newspaper that is 
published in each of the great cities of the United States. 
Then let him secure a set of books, say a dozen in all, 
containing each about one thousand pages, and divide them 
so that they will be indexed from the first to the last. 

Let him enter in alphabetical order under the proper 
letters in the various books, the names of all those who 
commit crimes of a fiendish nature, or who show a wanton 
disregard of the rights and feelings of others, showing 
the demon character. He will need a secretary and many 
assistants. In making the record the name should be 
entered carefully so as to avoid doubling the same act. 
Against the name let the crime be written. Everything 
that is diabolical is to go in these books. He will average 
from one to three thousand crimes of such nature each and 
every day in the year if he takes papers enough to cover 
the whole scope of the country. He may find from half 
a million to a million diabolical acts during the year. 

These will disclose only the offenses that happen to 
come to light. What is he to do about the millions of 
men and women who are criminal in the darkness of their 
private lives? What about the secret murders, rapes, 
adultery, fornication, thefts, graft, corruption, cheating, 
and countless wrongs that denote the blackened heart? 
These will not appear in the papers. 

But he will sicken as he cons what he does find published. 
He will no longer apologize for the imperfections of his 
fellow beings, but will know in unmistakable terms that 
a demon life is everywhere abundant. 

Attorney General Bonaparte in a recent speech declared 
that the effect of abolishing capital punishment for murder 
was rapidly increasing that crime. This is true. The 



PARENTAGE 187 

records show it. A man that is to be housed and fed all 
his life, is less deterred from hasty or premeditated killing 
than one who knows to a certainty that his own life will 
pay the penalty. The Attorney General also declared that 
when a man has been convicted of an attempt to kill 
another by any means he should suffer death. This is 
right in principle. He further said with a truth almost 
inspired that when a criminal had been several times con- 
victed of any serious crime he should be put to death. The 
reason he gave was also sound in logic and in truth. It 
is this : In the last century there was a much smaller propor- 
tion of criminals in England than there are now; and there 
are now many less there than there are to-day in the United 
States. This is due to the fact that confirmed criminals 
were executed and prevented from parentage, no matter 
what the nature of their crimes. 

This is right in principle. 

In this country no criminals are executed except for 
murder or rape, and very few for either. It is said by 
police authorities that one murderer in every nineteen is 
executed; and one rapist in every two thousand. Here 
we find the reason for the rapid increase of crime. 

The principle involved in this fact is seen in the re- 
lation of such parentage to the increase of crime. 

LAW. — Life drawn from the universal fund through 
criminals should be kept from parentage. 

Of course the inhabitants of earth are left to settle this 
question as best may suit them. They alone bear the bur- 
den of responsibility. They are given freedom of choice. 
They had freedom of choice in their first heritage in the 
sky. They rebelled and fell. They are now having free- 
dom of choice in the management of their fate on earth. 
This kind of liberty is seen in the character of the twelve 
disciples. Christ knew what each man was, and the nature 
of each mind and heart. He knew that His followers were 
free to act as they chose; and when He w T as betrayed it 



iS8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

was the happening of evil in the midst of good. So " fell 
the angels," as Shakespeare says. 

A criminal is a man or woman whose natural bent is 
to commit offenses against the law. As a rule the con- 
firmed criminal is not capable of being reformed. He may 
be improved, but rarely made an honest man. His brain 
bears the shape of the felon. His blood is tainted. He 
has come from the fund of demon life, and back to it 
he will go when he dies. He came on earth through 
criminal parentage, or else has been brought under the sway 
of the unseen demons that rule his life. There is no hope 
for him except through the button-molder, who will melt 
him in the crucible and recast him. But his identity is 
lost. He goes back to the fund of demon life, and comes 
out again in a new being, but not necessarily a better one. 

In the city of New York there are three hundred 
thousand confirmed criminals. In Philadelphia there are 
more than one hundred thousand. In Boston there are 
seventy-five thousand. In Chicago there are two hundred 
and fifty thousand. In each city there is a very large 
proportion. They slink away to their homes for sleep 
and rest; but are plying their trade of crime whenever 
they dare do so. They fear punishment only as they 
dislike to be deprived of their freedom to commit felony. 
They are not capable of being reformed. Not one in 
a hundred thousand can be made better ; and they bring 
to ruin many others by contact with them. They do 
some work, but are not a help to the nation, but become 
a burden on society. It would be much better for them 
if they had never been born. They have gained nothing 
by coming into the world, and society has lost much. 

The logical thing to do is to follow the advice of 
Attorney General Bonaparte, and execute those who are 
continual offenders. But the law T -makers will not consent to 
that. These criminals have votes. The next best thing to 
do is to segregate them, putting them where they cannot breed 



PARENTAGE 189 

and must live and die by themselves, just as we separate 
the cat from the canary before it is too late. But the 
law-makers will not consent to that, for these criminals 
have votes. 

Every criminal who has become a parent brings into the 
world offspring that cannot escape the doom of the criminal 
heritage. From the accursed demon fund they come, and 
back to it they will go. The best thing for the coming 
generations is to cut off all possibilities of such parentage. 
But as the dangers are ahead and will not be lessened in 
this era, the present generation is too selfish to take such 
steps. They are indifferent to the fate that awaits their 
children. 

Man has been given the reins of his own government 
and the control of the life-making power. He can train 
any animal breeder into better or worse offspring. In his 
hands alone the cattle, horses, dogs and other beasts have 
been wonderfully improved. Nature waited till he came 
before she undertook the work of making better life. The 
same is true of flowers, fruits and grains. Once there was 
but one kind of wheat; now there are several kinds. Once 
there was but one variety of apple; now there are nearly 
two hundred varieties. Once there was but one variety 
of grape, and now there are nearly one hundred. Once 
the pink was wild and single; now man has made it 
double and cultured, bringing out of the one kind of a few 
generations ago, a marvelous group of exquisitely beautiful 
flowers. Man has improved all forms of life he has taken 
an interest in as producers of money or profit. But he 
has allowed his own race to grow more and more depraved. 
The high moral status of forty years ago is displayed by 
a burlesque of ethics and an array of silly ideas with which 
he kills time if he can afford it; and when he slaves for 
a living he robs himself of all hope of betterment by his 
misuse of the privileges of life. 

To the serious phases of earthly existence he is learning 



i go 



THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 



to pay no attention. Not long ago he was impressed by 
the death of his loved ones; now he defies all thoughts 
and feelings that should turn his mind- toward the sublime 
heights of existence; and if the penalties are too burdensome 
he takes his own life. Suicide is so common now that 
it ceases to shock the public mind. It is looked for 
as one of the usual means of exit from a world that has 
been filled with failures and disappointments. 

In such a mood as this the present generation will pass 
back for the most part into the demon fund from which 
they sprung. When on the other hand there shall be a 
general awakening, the people will cut off all criminal 
parentage either by execution or segregation of the criminals 
that are confirmed in their degradation, and will thus make 
it difficult for the demon to come into this world through 
birth. 

LAW. — All persons that are born of honest parentage 
transform demons into human beings for whom there is 
hope. 

There is no hope for the offspring of criminal parents. 

The experts who have studied them have come to the 
agreement that they will remain criminals and so die in 
their boots. 

The hope of rapidly reducing the demon life that sur- 
rounds earth and that comes into being here, rests in the 
method that causes them to be born of honest parentage. 
That is the starting point. It is not all that is necessary. 
But it is a beginning. If they are born of criminal 
parentage, there is then no starting point. 

This law may be as easily applied to the human species 
as to horses, cows, sheep, dogs and other forms of life; 
or to roses, carnations, pears, apples, grapes or grains. The 
betterment takes place through the manner of breeding or 
propagation. Man has never once in all the history of the 
world applied it to his own race. Nature applied it when 
man was being brought upward toward civilization; for 



PARENTAGE 191 

she created the law of the survival of the fittest. Now 
man is reversing that law, and is permitting the unfittest 
to survive. 

At this time in his history when the nitrogen that sup- 
ports the growth of the vegetable kingdom is becoming ex- 
hausted, when animal existence is lessening all over the globe, 
when the mammoth forms of creation of the once great 
past are coming down to the ranks of insects and micro- 
scopic germs, when the time for the renewal of life is 
being perceptibly shortened, man should have a care lest 
the last round of his recall to earth shall have been spent 
and his future become the blackness of an unending demon 
existence. 

It may be that the spirit that set in motion the rebellion 
in the sky of which Milton wrote, is being concentrated 
in the demons that remain or soon will remain, and they 
will be finally sentenced to eternal death, removing forever 
all portent of further anarchy in heaven. 




192 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

GETTING FREE. 

* 1 

ii.i,i.i « . i . i . i i.i.kkiTk iTi. i i~i . 1T1T1T1 . i i iTi i i i i i i i iTi . i i i /)* 



EAVING THE darker phases of this study 
we come now to the uplands from which we 
can behold a better country. We still must 
deal only with facts, despite the tendency to 
discuss the probabilities and possibilities that 
open before us as the theme grows greater. It 
is undoubtedly a fact that the beings that are 
born on earth are descended from those that fell from 
heaven. The fund from which they are drawn into the 
process of birth is still a large one although it has been 
materially reduced as the centuries have rolled on. 

LAW. — Every life that dies in earth passes into the fund 
of demon existence. 

To die in earth is to remain earth-bound by failing to 
gain the freedom of the universe. All persons die either 
in earth or in the psychic world. 

LAW. — Re-born lives are not identical with those that 
died in earth. 

If there is any exception to this law it may be classed 
with the cases referred to in a preceding chapter. A re- 
born body is one that comes into life containing the material 
that has previously lived on earth. As there have been 
countless billions of beings on this orb, and as their bodies 
would fully consume all the soil on the habitable portion 
of the globe, it is not possible for any person to be born 
now who does not take the very material into his body 
that has been used more than once for making the bodies 
of other beings that have lived before. Therefore every 



GETTING FREE 193 

body is re-born, but there is not a continuing of the same 
identity. 

There is no person of intelligence who doubts the fact 
that all the soil now on earth has been used one or more 
times in the making of bodies that have lived. This being 
true, no one can deny that the bodies are re-born. But 
they do not preserve identity. 

As the soil is a general fund to which all beings in earth 
return, so the fund of demon life is general, and to it every 
person who dies in earth must of necessity return. There 
can be no other method of carrying on the process of the 
generations. 

LAW. — A person dies in earth who is not freed from 
demon life during the period of natural existence in the 
flesh. 

To die in earth is to be resolved back to the funds from 
which the life was drawn; it is to go back to the ashes 
of the earth, to go back to the vital storehouse, to go back 
to the fund of demons, to go back to that bourne from 
which the whole being came. Or, as Tennyson wrote : 

" When that which drew from out the boundless deep, 
turns again home." 

To die in earth is to be earth-bound. 

Law. — There are two kinds of death : the physical and 
the psychic. 

The physical death is that which sends the being back 
to the fund of demons from which it was drawn at birth. 

The psychic death is that which sets the being free from 
earth and gives him the power to return to heaven from 
which he fell. He will be extricated from all demon in- 
fluence, and the spirit of rebellion will be condensed into a 
comparatively few whose lives will be eternally doomed. 

As that spirit was born millions of years ago, its being 

crushed here will prevent its ever becoming manifest again 

in heaven. It is likened to the black sheep in the fold. 

It is the Judas in the twelve disciples. When Christ in- 

13 



194 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

troduced that proportion of evil into the best men that were 
at His command in His own life, it was the clear intention 
to hold up the necessary presence of fallen man as a part 
of the economy of the universe. There can be no other 
meaning in the incident. It was as possible to select twelve 
good men as eleven. Not that the proportion is one in 
twelve. Proportions count nothing. It is the principle. 

Even heaven was not always perfect. 

All forms of life on earth are being contracted or reduced, 
and the supporting powers are likewise becoming less. This 
is apparent even within the observation of the men of to- 
day. When nature moves so slowly that any one generation 
can measure off its degree of activity it is certainly coming 
close to a stop. In order to save repetition and review, 
the reader should peruse again the laws and statements made 
in the present division of this book. They show con- 
clusively in what ways life is being contracted. 

But before the final curtain is rung down, millions upon 
millions will have been freed from the dominant influence 
of the demons that surround the earth. 

Death that goes back to earth with body, soul, mind 
and vitality, will not free any man. 

The psychic death alone can do that. 

LAW. — The immortal being does not die. 

It may not be an easy matter to harmonize the fact that 
eternal life is the attribute of any created being, while death 
is the doom of all who live on earth. There are therefore 
three attributes: 

1. Immortality. 

2. The fall. 

3. Death. 

A created being lives forever. He may fall. Having 
fallen he then enters a fund of demon life where he be- 
longs. Earth is his place of exile until he either enters his 
eternal doom or is restored again to immortality. 

In order to give him his opportunity he is placed on 



GETTING FREE 195 

earth, but must come here in the demon or spirit life, as 
there is no other means of transit through the sky. 

LAW. — Matter dissolves, but life lives forever. 

The earth is made of rock which has been washed by rains 
and water into sand and from this there has been produced 
the loam by which the germ of life may find its beginning 
in the cell of protoplasm and thus clothe the spirit with 
a material body. 

LAW. — Death is necessary in order to free the soul and 
to give it opportunity to seek immortality. 

Death is also necessary in order to afford to each life 
in turn the chance to take on the material body. If there 
were no death on earth there would be no turn awaiting 
others. Death is change. The essential part of life does 
not die. 

The germ begins its existence, grows, takes on maturity, 
exercises its right to choose for itself, is hemmed in by all 
the evil influences from which it is sprung, and is attended 
by opportunities to free itself at every stage of life. 

When the period of a fair trial has ended, the body ripens, 
the earth from which it came gets ready to dissolve, the 
mind grows tired and the organism of clay is laid down 
into the lap of earth again ; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. 

The electricity that sustains the nervous system goes to its 
general fund, the vitality flies to its source, the mind again 
seeks resting place in the mass of intelligence that pervades 
all matter, and the soul is once more sent back to the demon 
fund unless it has worked out its right to pass on to other 
worlds. 

LAW. — Every person who enters the psychic world while 
on earth becomes immortal. 

As has been stated there are two worlds, one physical 
and the other psychic. 

Also as has been stated there are two minds, one physical 
and one psychic. 

In addition to this there are two deaths, one physical and 



i 9 6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

one psychic. We refer to the latter as a death, on the 
principle that death is merely a change from one state to 
another. When a person dies in earth, the change is 
complete back to earth and to all the funds from which 
life was drawn. 

LAW. — The psychic life begins on earth. 

By this is meant that it has its origin here for those who 
are here. The word psychic is used with reference only 
to the conditions that are found on this planet. A larger 
word would be required to describe the conditions out of 
which man was first created, and from which he fell, and 
which are now and ever will be maintained in the other 
worlds of the sky. 

As there are two kinds of mind, and two worlds, one for 
each; as there are two kinds of death, so there are two 
kinds of life. It has been shown that the physical existence 
is made of earth, that the five senses which are its agents 
are made of earth, and that there the psychic life is trying 
to break through the wall that separates the one existence 
from the other. Look once more at the final chapter in the 
first division of this book, telling in what way the powers 
of the psychic world are ever trying to find their way into 
the intelligence of the physical mind so that they may be 
recognized and understood. All the eleven chapters of that 
division lay the foundation for this one great fact. Take 
up the thread of human experience and note the thousands 
of ways in which the psychic life is seeking to help humanity ; 
by the devious methods of inspiration, of intuition, of pre- 
monitions, of grand thoughts that are inexpressible in words, 
by common warnings and presentiments, and by the actual 
presence at times of the psychic body before it takes its 
long flight upward. These efforts cannot be doubted. 
They are a part of the day history of life in the flesh. 

A man once came to the author and said that he had ac- 
quired wealth enough to keep him as long as he lived. He 
was not satisfied to live well in a physical sense, but was 



GETTING FREE 197 

eager to test some of the psychic laws to their utmost. The 
subject of inspiration was most interesting to him, for he 
believed that through that power he could touch the edge 
of the life to come. 

He took up the very simple process of writing down all 
ideas of value as they came to him, and afterwards referring 
to them in order to constantly excite the function that pro- 
duced them. In a year he found that thoughts entered 
his mind with great rapidity and that the value increased 
day by day, although almost imperceptibly. His next step 
was to select only the grandest of the new ideas, and en- 
courage his mind to give birth to them. 

But he wrote them down in the instant. 

Let this one provision be omitted, and the process ceases. 

The nervous system in the act of writing employs the 
sense of touch, and conforms to the sense of sight, aiding 
thus the operation of the thought itself. Little as this help 
may be, it is just great enough to make or mar the whole 
plan. 

It is absolutely necessary to adopt this plan of writing, 
of seeing, of reviewing from time to time, and of stimulat- 
ing the mind by keeping an exact transcription of the ideas. 
Then they must be instantly written down. To wait a 
minute may lose one word in the idea, and thus weaken 
the whole. Tennyson stated to a friend that he lost the 
arrangement of four of the simplest words of a poem, 
having delayed writing them down in connection with a 
couplet which formed a part of the poem, and he never 
got them as they came to him; the result being that he 
never published the poem. It is said of Shakespeare that 
not one word can be taken from his writings and replaced 
by another and leave the work as good as he made it. This 
is a wonderful tribute to his genius and inspiration. 

The case which we were relating progressed a year or 
more further, and the man found that he was gaining not 
only in new ideas of great value, but was reaching the 



i 9 8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY ■ 

goal which he sought. Having made so much headway 
he became interested in the study of psychic telepathy, and 
found the light that was so much desired. 

Victory crowned his efforts. 

This and thousands upon thousands of other proofs show 
conclusively that the psychic life begins on earth. It does 
not have its origin in the sky. It is the other part of man 
in this world. Everywhere we find evidence of his double 
nature. One seeks to help him when he is in need if he is 
worthy of that aid. 

In a recent case that has been called to our attention it 
seems that Dr. Henry van Dyke of the faculty of a leading 
university wrote a book which, owing to its exquisite beauty 
has been translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian, 
Turkish and other languages. In the second edition he 
prints an additional preface, a portion of which is given 
here word for word. The public press comments on the 
preface as though it indicated a claim of sacred inspiration ; 
but this is not apparent. 

Dr. van Dyke writes that he has been asked to tell where 
the story came from. This is his answer : — 

" I do not know where it came from — out of the air, 
perhaps. One thing is certain, it is not written in any 
other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of 
the East. And yet I have never felt as if it were my own. 
It was a gift. It was sent to me; and it has seemed as if 
I knew the Giver, though His name was not spoken. 

" The year had been full of sickness and sorrow. Every 
day brought trouble. Every night was tormented with pain. 
They are very long — those nights when one lies awake and 
hears the laboring heart pumping wearily at its task. 

" Well, it was in one of these long, lonely nights that this 
story came to me. Of the man I had never heard until that 
night. Then I saw him distinctly, moving through the 
shadow of a little circle of light. 

" His countenance was as clear as the memory of my 



GETTING FREE 199 

father's face as I saw it for the last time a few months 
before. 

" The narrative of his journeyings and trials and disap- 
pointments ran on without a break. Even certain sentences 
came to me complete and unforgettable, clear-cut like a 
cameo." 

We know from the lips of many of the greatest men of 
the world who have lived in our own time that they re- 
ceived just as decided manifestations as that which is indi- 
cated in the above preface. 

It all proves that the psychic life is here, is trying to 
break through the walls of human resistance, and has its 
first stage on this globe. 

As has been stated, it does not begin in the sky, for the 
life there is known by another name. It makes one worthy 
to go to other worlds in the sky, but starts here on this orb 
for the very purpose of affording the opportunity of becom- 
ing free from the demon fund here. 

LAW. — As the psychic life is included in earthly exist- 
ence, it can be entered only during life on earth. 

The claim that a man can die in earth and rise to im- 
mortal estates after death, is absolutely without foundation. 
There is nothing in any religion to show such a hope. The 
facts that are known and proven here all contradict it, and 
psychic telepathy settles the matter for all time by its evi- 
dence. 

There is but one kind of death that will open the gates 
to immortality; and that is the death in the psychic world. 
As that world has its threshold here, it has no door that 
opens hereafter to the soul that seeks it; nor is the soul 
permitted to get away from earth unless it has first entered 
the psychic realm. 

The fact that this better life has been knocking at one's 
mind for many years, is not proof that it will remain on 
terms of association for all time. It is not fully under- 
stood whether or not the efforts of the subconscious powers 



200 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

to break through into the physical mind are accidental. If 
they are, it merely means that the power is so great and the 
barrier so weak that there is an overflow of the presence of 
the former. 

If, on the other hand, such efforts were known to be in- 
tentional, it would greatly encourage the whole human race; 
for it would show that there is help awaiting the invitation 
to uplift man. He has been left to choose for himself the 
fate that he will be compelled to endure. He has been 
given the light that instinct affords to guide him in his 
feeblest struggles for existence on the earth; but this may 
be given for the sole purpose of keeping the race alive. If 
parentage were to cease all humanity would become extinct, 
and the waiting demons would be deprived of the opportu- 
nity of being born so that they may work out their destiny 
in the flesh. 

But aside from this slight help, man has been left to find 
out everything for himself. Nature has laughed at his ef- 
forts to master fire, heat, gravity, lightning, electricity and 
other elements; for she has gathered millions to her bosom 
as his luckless mishaps have felled him to death. She 
laughs at his untimely taking off in crowds of several hun- 
dred thousand every year through accident. The sooner the 
reckless folk are in the grave, the sooner the other demons 
will be given the opportunity to enter earthly life and try 
their chances with fate. 

It is an old and a true saying that " God will never do 
for man what man can do for himself." The race has had 
to find out everything without aid, and knows very little 
now of the real meaning of life and natural forces. 

Yet there may be an intent in the countless small in- 
stances in which the psychic world has shown glimpses of 
itself. Let us hope that this is true. But let us not cease 
to follow up a ceaseless hunt for more light on this very 
theme. This is one of the main purposes for which our 
Psychic Society exists. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



lu 



AFTER DEATH. 




^ivivtvivi -i.i.ivivi-. "i „i . "i~ i i i~vi i iTiuTiTCivi. ivkivi-uI. iviv-(CK?fviK?K 

EYOND THE FINAL CHANGE that dis- 
solves the body of flesh, separates the spirit 
and ends the brief span here, there is dark- 
ness or light, depending on what decision was 
made before the change occurred. It can very 
readily be seen that the dividing of the ways 
must occur in the lifetime of the body. There 
is no opportunity hereafter to decide the matter. Here on 
earth the mind is given to man so that he may think and 
know, compare and see for himself what he faces. He has 
everything at hand with which to find the solution. He 
learns that in proportion as he lives aright he is rewarded; 
and that the opposite course brings ill. These facts alone 
ought to carry conviction. But he has more. 

On every hand are beauties, pleasures that are wholesome, 
sweet influences and tender love to indicate what heaven is 
like. He walks between two fields. On one side there are 
exquisite evidences of bliss attainable even in this rough 
world. On the other side dark and yawning gulfs threaten 
him as they arch their grim entrances with the signs of prosti- 
tution, of gambling, of theft, of murder, of hell; and all is 
pain and suffering. As he turns to look on one field he sees 
nothing of the other, for his back is toward it and it is 
hidden. 

LAW. — After death there is no individual life except in 
the psychic world. 

This truth has been shouted into the ears and stamped on 
the hearts of all intelligent men and women for thousands 



202 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of years ; sometimes in one form of religion, sometimes in 
another. But the doctrines of the leading theology of civili- 
zation are closest to the divine fact. It makes no difference 
what is believed ; the dividing line between the physical and 
and the psychic life is clear, sharp and decisive. There is 
never any doubt when a person has entered the psychic 
world. 

LAW. — Unseen life is either demon or psychic. 

Heretofore for convenience as has been explained the term 
psychic has been applied to all forms of unseen powers and 
existences ; but the time has come when it is necessary to so 
divide such life as to place the demons on one side and the 
psychic powers on the other. For the purposes of this work, 
the general term psychic has been sufficient, and it has been 
used to avoid too much classification and division. As we 
will soon leave the demons behind, we will merely refer to 
them in the remaining pages by that term. 

It has been stated that after death there is no individual 
life except in the psychic world. The demons exist as a 
fund, but there is no single personality that can have knowl- 
edge of its existence or remain a separate entity. The soul of 
one who dies in earth and is about to pass into the demon 
fund is often capable of marking its way along the path, but 
does not linger beyond the allotted time for dissolution. It 
has been stated that some souls are earth-bound ; by which 
is meant that they cannot leave this planet for some time 
if they are destined for the worlds beyond ; or that they 
dissolve into their funds so slowly that weeks, months and 
years are occupied in their procrastination. But this asser- 
tion has never been proved. If there is any evidence to 
sustain it, let the Ps}'chic Society have it. We want the 
facts, and our members wish the truth. But we will not 
accept theories. We do not deal in them, and will not 
tolerate them. Nor do we care for explanation. Every- 
thing that occurs can be explained, not in one way, but in a 
dozen. Conclusions are the claims made after facts have 



AFTER DEATH 203 

been presented. But who is sure of reaching the right con- 
clusions unless the facts show them to be certain and un- 
mistakable? "What I see with my own eyes I am sure 
of," is the usual argument. But is the conclusion always 
warranted ? 

Let us have the truth in such a way that there will be 
nothing to dispute, nothing to entertain doubts of, nothing 
to leave the mind in a quandary, nothing for after altera- 
tion in our views. 

LAW. — It is impossible for the soul in the psychic world 
to communicate with human beings. 

Earth is a thing of the past. There must be no knowl- 
edge of it. Loved ones who fail to get free in one genera- 
tion are returned to the demon fund to be re-melted, and 
re-molded. They may secure freedom in the next coming 
on earth. If they do, although they lose their identity in 
the interim, it is restored in the final journey to heaven, and 
they know and are known there. 

But it would be a source of constant grief to know of 
earth after once being free from it. All demon existence 
is wiped out, just as the wet sponge rubs the sum off the 
blackboard. Knowledge of this vale of tears, of this abode 
of hatred, of this hell, would open up the wounds of a life- 
time of suffering here, and make heaven a place not wholly 
free from hell. 

This then may be the reason why there is a barrier between 
the physical being and the psychic being; why the thoughts 
of the latter may not be known to the former; and, while 
there is universal knowledge in the latter, it is cut off from 
earth as soon as its connection ceases with the body of 
flesh. 

While abundant evidence is at hand to show the appear- 
ance of the soul in its flight for a day or two after death, 
all evidence soon ceases; and never, in all the long years 
that follow, does the psychic being manifest itself to those 
who remain on earth. If there are spirits at all, they are 



204 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

in the demon world ; but they exist there in horrible forms 
such as the thoughts of criminals and devils would assume, 
and those are the visions that appear to the fevered brain of 
the invalid, the insane and the drunkard. 

LAW. — The psychic body, once free, leaves earth, never 
to know it again. 

The conditions that lead to happiness after the flight to 
other worlds compel the soul to close out all knowledge of 
this planet. It is bad enough to have been in hell without 
being reminded of it. The kind of life that was created 
in heaven was as near perfect as any free being could be 
made. Not all fell. There was only one Judas in the 
band of disciples that surrounded the Son of God ; and 
there could not have been a greater proportion of evil beings 
in the hosts that attended the Creator. Therefore only a 
small relative number fell ; yet they may have been thou- 
sands of millions, while forming a proportion of not more 
than one in a thousand. The misfortune came to compara- 
tively few, leaving the great majority untouched. Like a 
cancerous sore it festered to rebellion, and even the courts 
of heaven needed cleaning just as the band of disciples re- 
quired the elimination of the evil member. 

One is typified in the other. 

To be one of the number that belonged to that festering 
sore was a misfortune; and all memory of it should cease 
when the cleansing has reached its end. 

LAW. — Every earthly life is a coriiplete existence with 
the full possibilities of immortality. 

Despite the fact that the demon fund supplies all the 
beings that are born on earth, each individual is given the 
opportunity of freeing himself from the bondage of that influ- 
ence if he passes the divide. This is the line that separates 
the physical life from the psychic. Freedom occurs when 
all the demon nature is driven from the physical life. This 
is fully explained in the next chapter. As soon as this free- 
dom has been won, the being enters the psychic world as 



AFTER DEATH 205 

far as it exists on earth, and passes on to the other worlds 
in the sky. 

As the earth was made of material suited to build the 
bodies of flesh, and as its purpose is to give birth to the 
waiting souls that have been cast forth from the sky, that 
body of flesh is no longer required and is dropped. It is 
merely the physical part of the real existence. While it is 
the most substantial when measured by the standards of this 
world, it is really the least important. The mind may grow 
and develop, but it does not lose any part of itself. The 
soul and its psychic life are the same from before birth 
until after death. They never change. But the body of 
flesh is a constantly changing mass, unstable as the waves 
of the ocean. It lives only by change, and what is called 
life is the very process of alteration. To break down and 
re-build is necessary to the health of the body. It has no 
bearings, no anchorage, no fixed value, no final structure; 
but from the hour of first inception until it drops away in 
the last sleep it changes moment by moment. Such a body 
is of no use to an immortal being. 

It is a thing of earth. 

Therefore when death comes the soul either falls back 
to its demon fund to be re-melted and re-molded, or else it 
mounts up to the heavens for its place again among the 
higher beings. 

The body is left behind. 

The psychic being is the only important, the only un- 
changing existence of the individual. 

It lives regardless of substance. It is in the ether. It 
moves by the aid of the ether. It knows no law of gravity, 
and is not bound to earth. It is drawn by the power of 
universal magnetism to the world that is to become its first 
abode beyond. 

Time is made by the revolution of the earth on its axis, 
setting the pace of the day and night; and by the moon's 
passage around this orb, giving the months; and further by 



206 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the circuit of the earth around the sun, reeling off the 
years. 

As the soul in its distant home knows nothing of such 
revolutions, it is not involved in the passing of time. 

As it travels by the law of ethereal impulse, it knows 
nothing of space. 

As it is not a substance, it knows nothing of heat and 
cold. The flaming suns and the ice cold planets are one 
and the same to its ethereal body. 

Mind is not substance; therefore it would carry with it 
the full degree of intelligence. As the psychic mind knows 
everything without limitation, as far as the transactions of 
its own realm are concerned, it would be all-wise. Earth 
with its physical barriers alone are closed to it forever. The 
experiences in this world have been such that forgetfulness 
is a mercy. There has been nothing pleasant here for the 
greater numbers of the inhabitants. In an age when five 
hundred thousand men, women and children were put to a 
torturing death as occurred in the reign of one of the Roman 
emperors, and which stands forth as a type of the innate 
cruelty and demon character of earth, there is nothing that 
calls up loving recollections of an experience here. 

LAW. — Suicides and criminals are sent back to the 
demon fund and enter into the hideous forms of life that 
hover about the earth. 

No criminal can enter the psychic world. No suicide can 
have admission there; for suicide is murder. Nearly all the 
supposedly insane are those who have wantonly ruined their 
lives and hopes and thus broken down their minds, or who 
have disregarded the laws of health and given themselves 
up to perish in any way that fate may overtake them. They 
are parties to the demons that ruin them. 

There is a class of insane people who are descended from 
an ancestry that has indulged in habits that tend to ruin 
the body and its offspring; and on those parents rests the 
curse that follows to other generations, as God has expressly 



AFTER DEATH 207 

decreed. They and their offspring are re-melted and re- 
molded in demon life. Wherever there is insanity some one 
is to blame. The victim need not be the guilty party, but 
nature looks upon the line connectedly and the whole is 
rejected. An insane mind cannot enter eternal life. It is 
a blank, and must live again in order to make the effort to 
secure freedom from earth. 

The drinking man or woman ruins both body and soul, as 
well as the man or woman who assists in making the drunk- 
ard. This crime brings death to all who are parties to it. 
No one is innocent no matter under what guise he may 
serve. 

Gambling is an abject and debasing crime, whether it 
occurs in the filthy den, in the gilded hell, or the fashion- 
able parlor. It curses every person who indulges in it, or 
is associated with it. The pretended love of the noble horse 
which is used as a pretence to enter a life of gambling at 
the race track, damns the man or woman who yields to its 
criminal influence. The so-called innocent games in the 
drawing room that teach the spirit of gambling are on the 
same level with the bunco game and the moral character 
is no higher. 

There are four direct causes of insanity; any one of 
which may break down the mind. One is venery or the 
sensual waste of the body, which eats out the brain-cells. 
Another is the use of alcohol. The third is the spirit of 
gambling in any and every form. The fourth is the waste 
of the vitality of the body, whether by using the night hours 
for carousals, or drugging the blood with an excess of medi- 
cines, or any neglect or abuse of the splendid temple that 
God has made in which the soul is to make a trial for 
eternity. Whatever weakens the brain will bring on in- 
sanity, or set up a tendency in that direction. 

It is like taking changes in any desperate venture with 
possibilities of death standing on every hand. When at 
least the mind is gone, folks say: "Poor man, or poor 



208 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

woman, it is too bad, but it could not be helped." Nature 
knows better. If the human mind cannot learn better, it will 
have to suffer. Heaven wants mind and soul purged from 
the muddy vesture of earth, and so insanity cuts off all hope 
of immortality in that generation for the individual who 
suffers from it. 

Suicide, whether from insanity, as is sometimes the cause, 
or from a wanton disgust with life, or from mere pique, as 
in the case of the fellow whose girl has jilted him, or the 
girl who has been reprimanded by her mother, or from any 
other cause, great or little, is the most contemptible kind 
of murder known to nature. It is getting so common now 
that any person who has been offended or even slighted, will 
just as likely as not blow out his brains, as happened when a 
young man of good intellect ended his life because he had 
not been invited to a party. 

Suicides become the most hideous of all demons, taking 
rank with the murderers. They may be forced to have their 
birth in grovelling beasts or savages or other degraded beings 
such as snakes, reptiles or vermin ; and long generations must 
pass before they are reached by civilized parentage, if ever. 
The time is rapidly drawing nigh when the last vestige of 
hope will have fled and those who do not find escape from 
earth will constitute an endless hell here. 

One of the most eminent physiologists in Germany, a man 
who has devoted his life work to an investigation of the 
progress of humanity, and whose opinions have been received 
by all learned men as most valuable in the study of life, 
has recently written a work on the subject under discussion. 
He is Dr. Emil Koenig. He is positive that humanity is fast 
approaching its final doom. He is not a religious man and 
does not. write from the standpoint of the theologist ; but ob- 
tains his information from a study and close investigation of 
the present and past conditions of man, of the earth, and the 
remarkable changes that are now in progress. The chemical 
and physical alterations of nature are distinct and decided, 



AFTER DEATH 209 

he says. Humanity has reached the zenith of its development 
and stands now at the dead point where the next movement 
will be a rapid decadence. There is certainly no physical 
hope for the race, if his conclusions are warranted. 

Diseases are increasing with such speed that the doctors 
will soon outrank the patients. In a population of about 
eighty millions, not five hundred thousand persons are in good 
health. The nitrogen is being taken fast out of the air, and 
without it no plant can live, nor will man or beast have 
food. One investigator has estimated that at the present 
rate of loss, the nitrogen will have been so decreased that in 
ten years life will begin to fade from the earth. 

LAW. — When the opportunity for parentage ceases, all 
unborn demons will remain forever shut out of the psychic 
world. 

Great changes are certainly at hand on this globe. The 
facts are gathered from the investigations made by men of 
the highest learning independent of any religious views. 
Chemistry, physiology and physical processes are studied and 
analyzed with a keen knowledge that allows no important 
fact to escape, and they furnish the laws which control the 
fate of every human being. 

14 




210 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
STEPPING STONES. 

OPE IS THE STAR WORD of humanity. 
In its meaning is contained all that can be 
, sought or won through the efforts of man to 
free himself from the leash of earth. With the 
fulfilment of victory he is ready to set out on 
his voyage across the sky. The prospect is 
glorious. But will he have earned his passage? 
Let us see. To begin with he came from the demon fund 
that surrounds this orb. In coming into a body of flesh, he 
has been given the trial experience here in order to test his 
ability to free himself. 

What are the requirements? 
What are the roads ahead? 

If he fails, he goes back to that demon fund. In the 
Psychic Society there are men and women of every church 
denomination in the civilized world ; and one and all they 
believe in these laws as the first great exposition of the 
supreme facts of the universe. Not only are there many of 
the Protestant denominations, all included, not one faith 
being without representation ; but there are Catholics who 
are just as loyal and just as eager to have these doctrines 
told to all mankind. To them the scientific and physical 
demonstration of the existence of a demon fund answers the 
demand for a purgatory, or purging condition through which 
the unsaved individual is given a chance to come into im- 
mortality. " It is a perfect plan," writes one of the leading 
thinkers in that denomination, " and is indeed proved." 
There are two roads ahead. 



STEPPING STONES 211 

You may call the return to demon life a passage to purga- 
tory, or whatever process you please ; it is described in this 
book as a proved fact and must stand for its face value as 
such. 

Assuming that you choose the other road, what are the 
requirements that must precede your winning the coveted 
goal ? We will state them as they must occur, although all 
are as one single act on your part : 

1. You must in the first place want to free yourself from 
demon influences. Many persons do not care. 

2. Then you must have time and disposition on earth to 
perform your duties in the body of flesh. 

3. Finally you must in fact pass the dividing line between 
the demon influences and the psychic life. 

Let us look at these three conditions precedent. 

If you are indifferent about your freedom, if you must 
be urged by others to free yourself; in fact, if you have not 
a strong and ceaseless desire to escape from the demon influ- 
ences, then you will never get free. You will be returned 
to the demon fund, and in the course of time your indi- 
viduality will be restored and as a feeling, knowing being, 
you will enter into an endless state of suffering and pitiless 
tortures such as the former masses of humanity indulged in 
for their pastime, reflecting the fate that will bring all earthly 
life to an end. 

If you want to free yourself from such influences, you 
must choose for yourself, and not be led or coaxed to the 
change. 

Having found that you are of such desire, then you must 
lay in this life the foundation for the existence that may be 
gained after death. A sudden change of your nature will 
not help you at the last moment. There is no such thing 
as an immediate transfer of worlds without a test and proof 
of fitness. The criminal who reforms in jail prior to his 
execution goes to the demons; and, if he has slain a human 
being in wanton disregard of the laws of life, he will find 



212 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

his soul scourged in demon life to the very last dregs of 
hell, although he may have died in peace singing songs of 
salvation. There is no forgiveness for the villainy that has 
not reformed itself by an open life on earth during years 
of trial. 

Nature is too shrewd to be deceived by pretence. Many a 
so-called conversion and after-feeling of safety, are but the 
hypnotic effects of suggestion under great fear, the most 
potent of all self-hypnotizing influences in the world. 

Life here is full of duties. 

There are many things that every man and woman must 
know, the greatest of which is how to become useful and 
helpfully industrious; not necessarily by drudging toil, but 
in some way through the hours, days and weeks of the passing 
years, doing something that will be of value to self and 
others, not from the standpoint of money, but measured by 
the weight of good it may do in making life on earth a 
paradise. It need not be a great paradise, nor one of mag- 
nificence in a substantial sense ; for that which makes the 
heart love the earth is sure to be a type of heaven. 

At this stage of our work let us count up the Stepping 
Stones by which the demon life is transferred to the psychic 
life: It is not necessary to describe them at length. 

LAW. — Enough time must elapse between the decision 
and first step in the psychic life on the one hand, and the 
death of the body on the other hand, to enable the individual 
to establish on earth a type of heaven. 

This law is the basis of the Stepping Stones. 

Without it there can be no hope for immortality unless 
the spirit returns again to the demons for remelting and 
re-molding. 

LAW. — There is no past. 

Everything is in the present and the future. 

What the past is, cannot exist. Memory has no abiding 
place in the psychic world. No one knows what has taken 
place. All beings see and know the ever present. 



STEPPING STONES 213 

In this law is the hope of immortality for those who have 
once been demons, and for those who, having been under 
evil influence, have succeeded in freeing themselves. In this 
law lies all the hope of safety for the man or woman who 
has committed crime, who has sinned, who has fallen into 
the abyss of shame and degradation. This law does not 
take away the function of any religion, but confirms it from 
the standpoint of a scientific demonstration. 

Where the past leaves a man or woman, there will the 
soul remain. 

If there is genuine reform in any life, no matter how 
bad it may have been, and if there is time left on earth for 
setting up a type of heaven here, then the wickedest soul 
gains a passport to the worlds beyond and to immortality. 

Repentance on the death-bed will not avail a person, for 
the reason that there is no time left for earthly tests. Such 
a repentance is the act of the physical mind only, and that 
function cannot take much part in a psychic life. 

The habit of converting criminals in the cells of our 
prisons when they are awaiting execution is not by any means 
to be discouraged, but it will serve only to lessen to a slight 
extent the grade of demon life to which that soul is to be 
consigned. You cannot send a murderer to heaven from 
the four walls of a prison cell. 

If such a process were possible, then the men who have 
been demons and fiends, who have led diabolical lives, who 
have slain without mercy, who have raped and torn open 
innocent women and girls, who have tortured without re- 
morse, or who have defied the laws of earth by committing 
the most devilish crimes in the name of lust or greed, then 
such men could take their chances until they were caught, 
after which all they need do is to repent and be launched 
upon a career of eternal bliss. No such law was ever or- 
dained by the Creator. 

Earth holds all that is most pure and most hellish in its 
bosom. 



2i 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

It spans both extremes. 

There is nothing so horrible in any conceived abode of pun- 
ishment after death that it has not been duplicated here on 
this globe. 

There is nothing so beautiful and glorious in the noblest 
conceptions of heaven that it has not been aspired to in this 
world. 

Between these two ultra extremes every intermediate has 
been set up on earth. 

Here then is the opportunity for the individual who would 
pass the dividing line in time to win his passage to a better 
condition beyond. The Stepping Stones are each and every 
one essential. Let us see what they are, and how the journey 
may be started in this life; for here we take our first steps 
toward immortality. 

FIRST STEPPING STONE.— Each person must de- 
cide for self without coaxing or urging or suggestion under 
great stress of fear or suffering, that the demon life is not to 
be longer desired, and that the psychic world is the only hope 
of immortality. 

SECONL STEPPING STONE.— There must be both 
time and opportunity to set up on this earth a type of heaven 
in the heart, in the home if there be any, and in public. 

This requires time. Some prisons may afford such oppor- 
tunities, but the presumption is that they do not. It is true 
that men have in the past centuries been thrown into prison 
because of their goodness and religious belief, but they had 
won heaven before their incarceration. If they were bad 
and unworthy before they went to prison, they very likely 
deserved all or part of their punishment. 

THIRD STEPPING STONE.— The duties of life 
must be taken up and faithfully performed. 

One of the first of all duties is to assist in the support of 
the body, the making of a home where honest children may 
be brought into the world, and the maintenance of high pub- 
lic standards of purity. Life is so complex that these obliga- 



STEPPING STONES 215 

tions cannot be avoided. The hermit, the recluse, or the 
wholly ostracized individual cannot set up on earth a type 
of heaven. People must mingle with people and sustain a 
share of the burdens of existence in order that others may be 
encouraged to follow in the path of right. 

Idleness, whether in the home of the rich or the poor, is 
a natural crime. Useless pleasures that weary the soul and 
bring no healthful relief to the toiler, are ashes of death. 
The profession of social life whereby a woman exists solely 
for outdoing her neighbor in display and scenes of eating, 
cannot be atoned for by a few weeks of retirement and cessa- 
tion during Lent, nor by attendance at a fashionable church 
once a week, nor gifts to charity in any form. All these 
things are dead ashes in the moral body. 

FOURTH STEPPING STONE.— Simple methods of 
living must be adopted. 

Not only the physical body and the mind require that 
there shall be a return to simple habits, but the soul stands 
most in need of such a regime. 

The complexity of modern foods is ruining one by one 
every organ in the body. A few items of food will sustain 
life, if taken in reasonable variety. No nobler specimen of 
created beings of flesh can be found than the perfect horse. 
In bone, sinew, muscle, nerves, blood and organic life, he is 
without flaw. A human being who could attain to such a 
physical condition would be a marvel. Yet the perfect horse 
gets along with three or four articles of food and with noth- 
ing but pure water. He takes no stimulants, no alcohol, no 
tea, no coffee, no chocolate, no soda water, no ice cream, no 
pastry, no cake, no puddings, nothing but plain, wholesome 
food and drink. It has been proved that the identical foods 
that will support a perfect horse will best support a human 
being, substituting for the hay the leaf foods of the vegetable 
garden, such as celery, lettuce, greens, cabbage, asparagus, 
spinach, beet tops, and the like ; all of which are in the grass 
class. 



2x6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

If man had a half dozen or a dozen items of food, he 
would be better off physically. 

Not alone in foods, but in habits of occupying the time 
by day and night, and in the occupations that fill up the 
passing of the months, should the regime be simplified. 

It is admitted that humanity has a physical and a psychic 
nature; but the crowding of the days and nights with the 
mere physical and the complete denial of the psychic life 
within the former, breaks down all moral respect for the 
things that are most attractive when the bed of death is occu- 
pied. 

It all comes down to this proposition: 

There is a purpose in everything. There is usefulness in 
everything that belongs to the process of living. Is your 
day spent usefully and in accord with any definite purpose, 
or is it a drift of time, aimless, and useless? Recreation is 
useful, if it is wholesome. But it is not the goal of the day's 
existence. 

Complex and elaborate methods of living are hurtful, 
whether in the diet, or in the home, or in business, or in the 
professions, or in society. 

FIFTH STEPPING STONE.— There must be heaven 
in the heart. 

It is either demons or heaven; you cannot escape that 
fact. 

There are all grades of demons. The magnifying power 
of the fevered brain, or the inflamed sense of vision of the 
sufferer from delirium, or the enlargement of the optic nerve 
during great stress or excitement of any kind, will show all 
grades of demons. They must exist, or the brain could not 
possibly show them. We should be thankful that we cannot 
see them during the period of normal health. 

Some of these demons are in the lower ranks of animal life ; 
some are higher up ; some are apparently human ; some are 
weak in their evil character, suggesting that they are not 
disposed to do harm; but none are attractive or inviting in 



STEPPING STONES 217 

any respect. They are all awaiting their time to be born in 
bodies of flesh on earth and thus seek to win a passport to 
their home in the sky from which they fell. While so wait- 
ing, they take on almost any guise in the demon fund, but 
cannot be dormant. In that condition they exert an influence 
over all human beings whose affiliations are of their kind. 
Some of these influences are horribly hideous, and seem to be 
exerted solely for the purpose of hurrying the living into their 
graves in order to hasten the time when they may come into 
bodies of flesh. Thus they inspire the feeling of war that 
sends hundreds of thousands of men into their graves, and 
deprives women and children of the joys of life, and thus 
hurries them to untimely death. This is but a small part of 
their work. 

The point here made is that they hold sway over the heart 
and mind of all human beings who are not living in the 
psychic world. 

If there is heaven in the heart, these evil influences will not 
have power. They will leave the home and hearth. They 
will not walk with the person who has succeeded in over- 
coming their influence. 

Heaven in the heart is founded upon one condition only; 
and this is summed up in the word : HONESTY. 

A person who is honest may test it by the only method 
known or that can ever be known, and that is this : in every 
act, in every thought, in every utterance, ask the question: 
Is it what I would do, or think, or say if I stood face to 
face with my Creator? 

One man of world-wide fame writes this definition of 
heaven in the heart: "Will I do any act as freely before 
the eyes of my trusting friends as I will do it if I am sure 
that they will .never know it ? " 

Thinking over the foregoing inquiries, the accurate thinker 
will soon learn where to find the dividing line between evil 
and good. 

A man slept in a house with ten Italians. Had they 



218 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

murdered him, they would have been detected, and they 
knew it. He had money with him, and although it was 
small, there was not one Italian who would have hesitated 
to take his life if he was sure that no human being would 
find it out and bring him to an account for it. In fact, 
even if the sum of money was not more than ten dollars, 
every Italian in that gang would have committed murder 
for the pittance if detection were not possible. Their 
knowledge that they would have been arrested and tried as 
felons was all that saved the life of this man. 

But the ability to do wrong and escape detection of human 
sleuths, is not the test of a psychic life. Many a person 
passes in the public eye as honorable who is leading the life 
of a demon of evil and wickedness. The test in such case 
is in what the public may learn of the real facts. But that 
is not the true test. 

The psychic world is as open to all acts, all thoughts, all 
motives, all uttered and unuttered operations of the mind, 
as if they were proclaimed in tones of thunder from the 
housetops. How will you stand that test ? 

You are about to commit an act of some kind. Ask your- 
self the question, Would I do this thing if I stood face to 
face with my Creator? 

When you can reply in the affirmative at any and all times, 
then you have brought heaven in your heart, and the great 
divide is crossed. 

You will be honest in deed, honest in word, honest in 
thought, and no dogma of religion, no creed of theology 
can take you out of the ranks that are marching to eternal 
bliss. 

Keep this keynote in your mind at all times. 

Beyond earth there is no phase of life that is not honest. 
There is no being that can suppose any other condition 
than honesty. It is the straight line of thought and deed. 
It is the clear light of every act. Dishonesty is a warped 
condition ; straight lines become crooked ; things are said 



STEPPING STONES 219 

that are not so, and acts are performed that deal out evil 
and wrong to others. 

In heaven such departure from straightness would amaze 
the beings there. It would seem like an insane condition the 
terror of which would throw all the courts of heaven into 
chaos. As they cannot conceive that a created being can say 
what is not true, or do what is not honest, they know noth- 
ing of it. 

Dishonesty, graft, theft, lies, evil in all guises, deceit, 
concealment of purpose under fair promises, all these things 
are part of earth, and there is no other orb in all the universe 
that can give birth to such moral monstrosities. 

The man or woman who would seek admission to the 
psychic world by pretence, by sham, by hypocrisy, or by 
show of good intent when evil is in the heart, will gain 
nothing; for it is impossible to succeed in such disguises. 

Ask the question : " Am I honest ? " and see how you 
can answer it. Or the question, " Am I deceiving any 
human being in what I do or say?" and see what your 
reply will be. Here is the test. 

There is no religion superior to that which teaches hon- 
esty. If you can make your every act and word and thought 
honest, just as honest as you would like to have it appear 
when you stand in the presence of your God, then you have 
nothing to fear. 

You may cover up your deeds and hide them from your 
fellow beings, but it will not pay. The goal is a return to 
the demon fund after death. Nothing but the white light, 
the pure white light, the absolutely clear and immaculate 
white light of honesty can save you. Religion does not al- 
ways make a person honest. Therefore religion cannot save 
you when it falls short of this end. If you belong to a 
church that does not make you honest, the church will not 
bring you to safety. You who are members of churches 
know what we mean. If in spite of that membership, if in 
spite of your affiliation with good men, if in spite of your 



22o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

attendance upon communion and all the charity that you are 
credited with on the books, you are honest, you know it. 
No one else wants to know it. If you know you are not 
honest, it is time to know further that you have not crossed 
the great divide; you are in the demon world and your souls 
will go back to its last source. 

There is not the slightest doubt about this fact. 

Therefore it is time that you should take an account of 
stock of yourself. 

Do not let the opinions of others influence you. 

You have sense enough to know that there can be no 
other test than that which is here presented. 

Do not allow yourself to be deceived. 

Think it over, and if you find that your church has not 
made your life honest, do not leave that church, but turn 
about and do the right thing: Get honest. It will not hurt 
you, or your creed, or your church, and it may do good all 
along the line. Study these things. Be sensible. 

If you will make everything bend to this one law, if you 
will stop splitting hairs about beliefs, if you will drop the- 
ories and cling to facts, if you will wake up to the clear 
light of a new morn the radiance of which is so full and 
strong that it will not admit of mistakes, then you will pin 
your faith and your creed and your dogmas and your theol- 
ogy to the highest of all rules of human conduct: Be honest. 

You then cannot fail. You cannot go down. You can- 
not be sent back, the body to the earth and the soul to the 
demons; but your spirit will have entered the psychic world, 
and it will be safe. 

A sudden shifting from your present methods to a brief 
period of honesty will not do. You may be honest as long 
as it is convenient, but nature will not be deceived. 

Your honesty must show in your life, in your home, 
in your conduct towards others, in your public relationship. 
There must be time for it to develop and set up heaven in 
your heart. This cannot come at the mere word of com- 



STEPPING STONES 221 

mand. It is a growth that must put on foliage, and send 
out branches, and blossom into flowers, many of which 
must bear fruit. Just as it requires time to re-work the 
soil in the orchard where a decrepit and crooked tree has 
been wasting the vitality of the land to no purpose, and just 
as it requires time to start the new growth, the buds of 
spring, the blossoms, the setting of the fruit, the long waiting 
during the heat of a battling summer, and the cropping in 
the fall, so your new life must take its period of change and 
development. 

Honesty is not a fiat. 

It cannot be decreed by the command of the will or the 
decision of the mind alone. These are necessary, but they 
are not enough. 

Take time. Set up a type of heaven on earth. When 
you die you will go from what you are and what you have 
actually adopted in your life as a genuinely new condition. 

Your mind cannot take you to heaven. 

It is what of heaven you help to establish on this earth 
that must determine your success or your failure. 

SIXTH STEPPING STONE.— Love of life on earth 
must never cease. 

The meaning of this command is that an honest person 
must remain here and do all in his power to help others. 
A good example, even without words, is an influence that 
is sure to encourage those who behold it. To such an 
example may be added speech, kindly deeds and a sweet com- 
panionship that shall be a token of a better world. 

Earth holds in its widest scope the broadest extremes of 
good and evil. While wrong is in so large a majority that 
time can never efface it all, every inch of progress made 
toward a better condition is genuine helpfulness. Charity 
that consists of alms alone, or of building institutions, does 
almost no good, for it takes away the ambition and self- 
effort that are necessary in each individual. The best char- 
ity is that which reduces the causes of evil and misfortune. 



222 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

rather than that which heals the wounds they inflict. Earth 
to-day has very little of such charity. 

Never in the history of an advanced civilization was there 
such a combination of puerile and silly influences as now 
exist, all tending to drag down both mind and soul. You 
may not realize what is meant; but you should obtain a 
blank book and begin to note down these things and see 
what you have gathered in a year. Both from a public 
and a private standpoint such influences are abundant and 
prominent in the effects they produce on each individual 
life. 

The idea of heaven is practical when it is sound. 

Very little is known or can be imagined of the occupa- 
tions in the far away worlds of the sky; and so there has 
come into most minds a series of pictures that have no place 
in fact. The nearest approach to a realization in this world 
of what is in store beyond, is to be had through the aid of 
psychic telepathy, and that tells us that all life worth living 
here or hereafter is practical and not merely sentimental. 

For this reason it is the duty of every man and woman to 
seek the better things that are at hand on every side in 
this world. Nature teems with blessings that need only 
the taking to be had ; and there are others that yield in 
abundance under the guidance of man. 

If life here is a failure, it means the doom of the indi- 
vidual who so finds it. Wealth brings less happiness than 
poverty; but grinding starvation is a penalty that is being 
paid for the offenses committed at some stage of life. There 
is no person so poor that he cannot rise out of his condition 
by combining sensible thinking with sensible conduct. 
When these two agencies are dead, then the mind is too 
warped for physical existence, or too criminal for advance- 
ment. 

Where the nature of a person runs to the sensual and 
the beastly, nothing can be hoped for. Appetite must have 
its sway, and the end is in the fund of demon life. 



STEPPING STONES 223 

It is a mistake to look for phenomena as signs of some- 
thing better. It is a mistake to build hope on a supposed 
previous existence on earth. If you think that you once 
lived on this globe, the sooner you forget it the better; for 
you are in the same position as the newly-rich man who had 
his ancestors investigated and found that every one of them 
had been hanged. 

It is a mistake to seek in thin-brained systems some tinsel 
hope of a better life. Your duty is to yourself and those 
who depend on you, and it begins here and now. Chase no 
rainbows. 

When you have crossed the dividing line and have come 
into the new world, you will know it with a certainty. 
There can be no doubt on that point, as the experience will 
be decided and permanent. But that world has its begin- 
ning in this life, and you will deceive yourself if you build 
hope on a belief that it is wholly beyond. 

It is like a ladder that rests on earth. If it lacks this 
anchorage it cannot be ascended. It is both a beginning 
and a means of transit. It somewhat resembles the recruit- 
ing school where sculptors were developed until they were 
qualified to be sent far away to work on a grand temple ; 
they could not start on that journey as long as they showed 
a lack of qualification for the conditions elsewhere. 




224 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

. ; i . i . I . i i^.i.i.li.mv^m.m.ki i . I . i . I . I . i . I . I . I . I , ~i I iTl TlTl . i~~r. 

WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE. 

iivr.i.Kj.i.i.i.i.M.ivivwi" "iViTi - iTi ~i~iTi~. iTi^i.i.i.iTi.i.i .i.i.i.i^ui ^l\Tiri: 



ID YOU EVER STOP to think that the 
ball on which you live is an active world travel- 
ing three kinds of journeys at one and the 
same time? It is a rolling orb, having an 
imaginary axis on which it spins at the rate 
of about one thousand miles an hour. That 
is, its surface if viewed by some person sta- 
tioned away from it, would sweep past at that rate. In 
addition to this motion, the earth has been whipped off 
from the sun and sent whirling through space at another 
rate of speed that would seem appalling to one who is used 
only to the laws that are at work on the surface of the 
globe. This rate is about thirty times faster than that of 
the earth on its axis. 

The third journey is that of the whole solar system 
through space. This has been variously estimated, but it 
is known to exceed one million miles an hour. 

To train the mind to understand the meaning and im- 
mensity of these great rates of speed, let us suppose that 
we are stationed far away from the earth, but not beyond 
the range of vision of all the details of form, shape and 
movement on the outside of the giant ball. We must pass 
beyond its atmosphere, and must suppose that we are not 
affected by heat or cold, or lack of the necessaries of life. 
Of course this is all imaginary, as it would be physically 
impossible. The only thing certain about it is what we will 
see, and this will be described with accuracy. 

The first fact that will impress us is the wonderful 



WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 225 

rapidity of passing objects on the face of the globe. They 
will go by us at the rate of about one thousand miles an 
hour. If we stand on a hillside and note the movement of 
a train that is known to be running at the rate of a mile 
a minute, or sixty miles an hour, the thing does not seem 
speedy; but if we are close to the track, it is most rapid, 
and we catch our breath at the thought that anything made 
of substance can fly over the ground with such amazing 
swiftness. 

Now sixty miles is a snail-like, creeping motion when 
compared with the sweep of one thousand miles an hour 
which the surface of the earth makes as it whirls its con- 
tents past our startled vision, even if we are some distance 
away. 

The second fact that will impress us is the apparent 
solidity of this ball. It has all the appearance of a big, 
over-grown, massive missile, set whirling by some unexplain- 
able power, and carrying on its face so many countless bil- 
lion tons of substance that it ought to be furnished with a 
rock center of adamant, else it would break and crack up 
into fragments. Still if such an accident were to occur, 
the pieces would all be held to the planet by the law of 
gravity. 

The third fact that will impress us is the panoramic 
display that whizzes past as though a gale blowing at the 
rate of a thousand miles an hour were chasing everything 
before it. This series of incomparable pictures is more 
varied than the mind of man can conceive, and their inter- 
minable rush puzzles and stupefies the brain. 

The fourth fact that will impress us is the dignity and 
steadiness of every part of the face of this madly whirling 
world. There is no confusion, no mishap, no chaotic con- 
dition out of which we may expect disaster. All is calm 
and supreme repression. 

If our position is taken directly over the tropics, we see 
the lands of the thinly clad peoples, of giant foliage, of 
15 



226 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

mountains topped with rock and snow, or rivers like silver 
threads winding their way through vales and down steep 
valleys into the meadows from which they escape into the 
great seas. Cities perched high on rocky seats; villages 
nestling along the open plateaux; high spires pointing directly 
toward us for the brief fraction of a second and then 
seemingly inclining over to their sides until they disappear 
off the edge of the horizon; mills puffing their smoke and 
darting out of sight ere they have given vent to their 
activities; fields stretching away like carpets that are rest- 
less to reveal their intricate patterns; deserts of sand that 
glitter in golden brown beneath a hot sun ; the wide oceans 
that come and go, now like a sheet of glass, and again in 
tossing swells reaching from continent to continent; all 
these things pass in review before the reeling brain. 

If we are along the southern belt of the earth, there is 
a succession of water and ice, all beautiful to behold, and 
even more attractive because of the welcome arrival from 
time to time of islands and polar continents. 

But the northern belt is that of civilization. The whole 
w T idth of the United States is speeding by spread out before 
the eye, and disclosing a varied panorama that is en- 
chanting. The Atlantic waters have just swept on, and 
the long and rugged coast line looms up from Maine to 
Florida, rock-bound, fringed, jagged, pointing, sandy, 
marshy, full of inlets, and terminating in scattered drops 
of islands far away to the south. 

The pine forests bending to the west now rise in majesty, 
hold high their heads for a shadow of a second, then rapidly 
bend to the east as they are hurried off the scene. The 
eastern coast line runs away so fast that we think it is an 
elusive serpent of rock-made hide. 

The king of the New England mountains with its sea 
of devoted attendants, touched with a hoar frost leaps out 
of the west and is erect for a moment and then rushes wildly 
to the fading edge of the horizon, followed by the less 



WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 227 

ambitious elevations of the greener state. Cities with build- 
ings that kiss the sky, rock and roll and tip and bend and 
plunge to the mists of the falling east, as they come and 
go in a marvelous succession. 

New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington are 
dots on the great ball, and they seem with their countless 
buildings to be ant-hills checkered with grooves. In one 
mad dash the capitol, seemingly attached to the monument 
that pierces the air, speeds by. We think that the spire will 
break, so low and flat it looks when first it comes up over the 
western edge of the earth, but as the globe rolls onward, 
the granite shaft begins to right itself, and finally stands 
erect and proud in its glory, then leans, leans, leans more 
and more, and still more till it is almost level and is gone 
toward the waters of the Atlantic, following the historic 
Potomac and the lashing Chesapeake. 

The smoky city rushes on the scene after hills and rivers 
have been sent before it to clear the path. In the tier of 
states running to the gulf there are many events being en- 
acted, and life takes on a new appearance. To the far 
north are lakes like seas, a veritable inland ocean, and sterile 
countries are barely visible over the chain of waters. Again 
mighty cities rise, stand up to be seen, and fall eastward to 
be lost in the cloudy haze. The uplands grow in height 
from one end of the continent to the other and are cut with 
rivers that wind in and out through them, sustaining on their 
banks the crowded habitations of men. Fences and walls 
give a veined appearance to the open land as though a puls- 
ing life-blood were throbbing over all the surface. 

It is a busy scene. 

Higher and higher the face of the globe uplifts itself until 
the rocky range sweeps past hurrying to the eastward at the 
rate of a thousand miles an hour. There is no tremor, no 
unsteadiness as this vast upheaval is carried on in its daz- 
zling speed, for its foundations are sunk deep in the globe. 
More mountains appear and disappear; and at length the 



228 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Pacific Ocean gleams bright like a boundless sheet of ice 
fringed with the golden land of the west. 

There is now nothing but ocean, nothing but water, 
nothing but monotony, save for specks that may be ships 
and up-tossed rocks, and land that must be islands. On, 
on the sweeping waters rush, whirling ever past us like a 
sliding sheen that throws back the light of the sun more 
bright than mirror or jeweled glass. Far away a new con- 
tinent begins to awake; the Orient is at hand. Here the 
yellow races and the brown races and the black races, all 
in multiplied confusion, take up their dreary duties like 
swarms of ants on sodden ground. 

The panorama shifts with hastening change; and sea, 
mountain and upland vie with the plains and wilderness to 
make up a passing picture; the great ranges, snow-topped 
and so sharp and tall that they must, we would think, stag- 
ger the reeling world and throw it off its center, come 
grandly up out of the west, and run their course in open 
view for many minutes, then cut new paths down the eastern 
side of the globe, and so are gone. 

Oldest earth is beneath us. It is the birthplace of man. 
And we view with increasing wonder the course once taken 
by the migrating hordes thousands of years ago when civ- 
ilization marched forth to conquer Europe. We travel 
the same journey in four hours that they traversed in four 
thousand years. Old Palestine sweeps by; the ancient sea 
comes on, and in its bosom is seen the land where the mind 
of man rose to dizzy heights. From Greece to Italy, from 
Athens to Rome, we seem to sail, as the speeding surface 
rushes swiftly by; and the waters where teeming millions 
came and went, and on which nature enacted many a 
tragedy, are passing beneath us in wondrous flight. All the 
continent, sharpened to a point at the topmost peak of the 
Alps, lies spread out before us ; while the snug little islands 
where civilization was re-born, are dimly viewed away to 
the north. 



WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 229 

Westward the course of passage takes its way, and over 
the broad Atlantic the scene sweeps on to the new world. 

What a wonderful ball is this that is flung into space! 

What magnificent pictures are made to pass in review be- 
fore us! 

The face of the earth is carpeted in green, sometimes 
bright, sometimes dark, and the furry coat that wraps it like 
a garment is an endless cover of trees, bright and fresh in 
the spring, deep and dark in the summer, then gold, yellow, 
red and brown in the autumn, until all is bare, and the 
winding sheet of pure white overspreads the world. 

It is a rich variety. 

Shore and sea ; lake, river and pond ; brook, field and 
meadow; hill, vale and ravine; mountain, cliff and preci- 
pice; woods, plains and prairie; sand, desert, and plateau; 
city, village and town ; rich and fertile farms, or dull and 
barren rocks ; forest and glen ; cave and morass ; all, all 
are mixed and mingled in unceasing change to suit the needs 
and the vagaries of man. 

This is the earth, or that small portion of it that appears 
on the thin and filmy surface. It is a ball of rock, mellowed 
at the outer part in order that man may have its uses and its 
gifts. 

It was planned many millions of years ago and brought 
through all its vicissitudes that it might meet the require- 
ments of the beings that were destined to people it. 

If one world can be so constructed that it will suit the 
wants of physical life, then each and every world in the sky 
can be given equal attention in the planning and making so 
that it will adapt itself to every need and wish of those 
higher beings that dwell there. There is evidence on every 
hand of a creative thought that makes all things for a defi- 
nite purpose, without waste or loss. 

Our position will now change. 

We have been placed in the path of the sun where we 
could see the ever bright face of the earth. We have been 



2 3 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

held in the same orbital radius, so that the planet has not 
left us, but its surface has been rolling by. 

Now the imagination will take us to some outer position 
in the solar system, but only for a second. We see the great 
ball of rock whizz past on its annual circle, but its speed of 
thirty thousand miles an hour is too great to be realized, 
for it is come and gone ere we can understand what the swift 
flight means. But as it swings by, its rolling surface main- 
tains its first motion in combination with the second, like a 
spinning top rotating in a large ring. 

The third and last position in the imagination is that 
which puts us in space beyond all the planets of our sun- 
system. Now the sun itself and all its followers sweep 
past us as a group, impelled on a journey among the other 
stars, travelling at the rate of nearly a million miles an 
hour; yet we are so far away from the nearest star in space 
that it would require thousands of years to effect a relative 
change of position. If you will look out to the north on 
some clear night, you will see the plow, or what is popu- 
larly known as the big dipper. The basin of the constella- 
tion is perfectly shaped, and has been for the past two 
thousand years; but in twice that time in the future, its 
stars will have changed so that there is no semblance to a 
dipper in its shape. Like all other stars in the sky, they each 
have planets and satellites, and are distinct from their near- 
est neighbors by so many billions of miles that the mind can- 
not conceive or compute it. 

The earth is probably a solid rock, containing all the 
elements in its composition. In trying to cut a compara- 
tively small channel across the Isthmus of Panama, a 
scratch so very slight that it would not have received any 
attention from our first position in space, we find that mil- 
lions of tons of heavy earth must be moved. To a single 
individual, this mass of weight seems most ponderous; yet 
it is as nothing to the whole globe itself. 

Whence came this mass ? 



WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 231 

How did all this substance reach the present form and 
shape and position in the sky? 

Was it contributed from some greater world afar off? 

Was it made to order, and given birth here? 

Was so much weight and ponderous material thrown forth 
from the sun, despite the fact that the sun seems to have 
no weight whatever except what may be contained in flaming 
gases ? 

This wonderful world with its differing elements; its 
coal and other fuel stored away in its bosom ; its mines of 
iron, copper, lead, tin, silver and gold; its jewels, diamonds, 
rubies, and precious stones; its yield of every kind of paper 
and fabric, of countless species of animal and vegetable life, 
of flower and herb unlimited; this wonderful world is but a 
feeble reminder of the more glorious orbs that float in the 
sky, each one of which is equipped with attractions that far 
surpass our own little globe. 

But from what source came the substance that makes up 
this tremendous weight that rolls in space? No person can 
ignore the question, for it is the test of a thoughtful and ap- 
preciative mind. 

How could all this material be brought out here and 
formed into a ball and set going on its axis whirling through 
the sky? 

Are the other worlds made of substance or of light? 

Let us think over this problem, and see what way it points 
our minds. 

Nothing can happen without a cause. Nothing takes place 
by accident. If any person thinks otherwise, the study of 
psychic telepathy will settle that doubt so quickly that only 
humility and shame will be left. Nothing is wasted. Every- 
thing has a purpose and a goal. For each man or woman 
that breathes at this moment there is a fate, a destiny. Born 
of the very soil that makes the earth, holding in his body not 
less than fourteen of the elements of which the globe is com- 
posed, he sprang out of the very clay on which he treads, and 



232 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

to it he will of necessity return. When the years have 
elapsed into centuries and the centuries have moldered into 
a^ons, will that living, breathing, human organism be wrap- 
ped in the silent crust of this earth and so go on whirling 
forever through space? 

Or is there something that passes out into the sky and seeks 
its home amid the glories of other realms whose dazzling 
splendors outshine the brilliant promises of our fondest 
hopes? 

Without the shadow of a doubt the sun-system in which 
we now live, is part of the general heavens, and is bound to 
the great plan that made them all one. This being true, 
the answer to our query is plain, and it will be discussed 
in the following pages. 




233 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. J 



ANY GENERATIONS AGO, long before 
the great astronomer of our own times used the 
phrase as the name of his most popular book, 
the title of this chapter was a common theme 
for discussion and learned essays. The belief 
in the flatness of the earth had given way slowly 
but steadily, and at length the orb was circled 
by navigators which left no doubt of the shape of our planet, 
Then it was known that there were other worlds in space. 
The sun was seen as a fixed center, but the stars were of dif- 
ferent character. Some of them moved past each other, 
while all took their course to the west. Even the stars in 
their constellations displaced other groups, and the zodiac 
was then understood to be a circle of star-pictures occupy- 
ing the whole range of the middle heavens. 

The orbs that shone with borrowed light were found to 
belong to our own solar system, and were held in their paths 
by the magnetism of the sun. 

Each star in the sky is the center and seat of government 
of a group of planets, more or less numerous, if it follows 
the plan that is visible to us. As every planet in the solar 
group differs from every other one in marked characteristics, 
some of them being exceedingly beautiful and attractive to 
the mind in its contemplation of life on them, so it is reasona- 
ble to assume that all the billions of other planets are sep- 
arately designed with a view to affording an endless chain 
of interest and occupation. 

When Proctor sat near the summit of a mountain one 



234 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

moonless night and saw the massed galaxy before him, saw 
the great stars of giant magnitude and the lesser ones nearer 
or farther away, and realized that the telescope which digs 
depths in the abyss of space that are unfathomable, serves 
only to reveal more and more worlds like an accumulation 
of sands in the strand by the sea, all uncountable and in- 
comprehensible because of their vast numbers, he suddenly 
became white and exclaimed : "Every star is a sun, and every 
sun has its system of planets and satellites, and not one of 
them is wasted. No, not one. I am sure of it. I have 
studied the stars, have written many books on them, have 
been active with the telescope for more than half my life, and 
have been given all the light that can come to humanity 
by hard study and hard thinking, and I say that I know 
that not one orb in the whole sky is wasted. It plays some 
part in the great drama that is being enacted beyond." 

He stood foremost in his day as a deep thinker, a careful 
scholar, and an exact scientist in his great profession. His 
close investigations of the orbs of the sky gave him a pecul- 
iar power to discern facts that might not otherwise have 
come to him. He had an almost sublime faith in psychic 
telepathy, as he personally told the writer of these pages. 

And he had reached the right conclusion. 

Nothing is wasted. Nothing is allowed to die that will 
not live again. Nothing is kept forever in a dead condition. 
There are no worlds that are useless. To believe such a 
thing would take from the purpose of the Ruler of the uni- 
verse the very essence of existence. 

If you were to take one million steps, each thirty inches 
long, which is the average pace, you would have walked 2,- 
500,000 feet, or nearly 500 miles. 

If you were to take ten million steps you would have 
walked nearly five thousand miles. One hundred million 
steps would bring you almost 50,000 miles, or twice around 
the globe. One billion steps would constitute a journey of 
about 500,000 miles. 



OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS 235 

Now supposing that you could travel that number of steps, 
one billion, or one thousand million paces, and at each step 
you could touch a world, you would have touched only a 
billion of the orbs in space. 

If your mind is able to keep up its chain of thought along 
these lines, see if you can imagine what length of time it 
would require for you to stop off at each of the worlds, not 
for a minute, but for an hour. You would make one thou- 
sand million visits. Go farther now, and instead of stopping 
off, suppose you make each world your abode, not for a day, 
nor a year, but for a long lifetime. There were one thou- 
sand million such worlds before you, and as many periods of 
existence. 

Having gone thus far, let us see if you are able to grasp 
one more idea. Instead of a thousand million or a billion 
worlds, there are in fact more billions than you can multiply 
by billions. Take a large piece of paper, say ten feet long 
and ten feet wide, and write on both sides of it with a fine 
pointed pencil so that you will not waste the smallest part 
of the eighth of an inch of space on that paper; and com- 
mence to multiply billions times billions until the two sides 
of the sheet are covered with figures. Or, better still, be- 
gin with the sands on the Atlantic coast as far north as you 
can find them, and count every grain that exists around the 
whole continent from north to south and from south to 
north again, and as you count them, regard each as a world 
in the sky, and the sky as full of such worlds as the beaches 
of earth are full of grains of sand, and you will begin to 
have an idea of the immensity of creation. 

Now think that each such world is probably much larger 
than our earth, that it is a complete and complex realm as 
full of beauties, splendors and glories as the infinite art of 
God can conceive, that it is also the abode of created beings, 
that there are occupations that round out the years as we may 
call them for convenience of terms, that there is a develop- 
ment and progress, pleasure and satisfaction in every act, 



236 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

freedom from the ills that abound in this world, and no 
possibility of death or trouble, enmity or suffering. 

Think of the fact that each and every life that passes 
from earth to the sky, will live a long and perfect era in 
each and every world in the universe; and that there are as 
many such worlds as there are grains of sand on the conti- 
nents; uncountable, numberless, endless in their succession, 
each a magnificent kingdom. 

All these worlds are yours. 



237 



FOURTH GRAND DIVISION 
THE PSYCHIC LIFE 

AND 

IMMORTALITY 



AS TAUGHT IN THE 

SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 



238 



THE SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY. 

Pleasant relations should exist between author and reader ; 
between teacher and pupil. A friendship at least of feeling, 
a companionship in the search after truth, a fellowship in 
the enjoyment of the fruits of knowledge, are always de- 
sirable and helpful. In spite of the fact that fifty-three 
works have been issued in less than thirty years, and that a 
vast army of readers and students still maintain an un- 
abated interest in the lessons taught, there has never yet 
been an attempt made to organize a private class among 
our followers. 

Such a society is now suggested. 

Its purpose is to establish a bond of interest between the 
author and those who are helped by his teachings. Many 
of these doctrines have been regarded as being ahead of 
the times, and it has been stated that the times have been 
steadily coming up to them ; but this claim is probably not 
true, for the principles set forth in these many works have 
struck deep in hundreds of thousands of lives, and have 
completely rebuilt most of them on better lines. 

The time is now ripe for advanced methods of thought. 

Whatever does in fact help a reader or student, is of 
vital interest to the author. Reports and communications 
describing the results of adopting or applying some law 
or principle, will always increase the interest of the persons 
who furnish them, and will add power to the future efforts 
of the author. 

In obedience to the expressed wishes of others, the name 
of the proposed organization is the Shaftesbury Society. Its 
plan and methods of usefulness will be found stated in the 
chapters that will now follow. 



239 




CHAPTER XXXVI. 



I 1 

I TREND OF THE TIMES. | 



ACTS that should not be published broadcast,, 
'but that are potent in their significance, re- 
, quire the attention to-day of every thinking 
man and woman. It is right that a plain state- 
T ment of these facts should be made at this stage 
of the present work. Many persons will not 
like them ; others will deny that such condi- 
tions exist; and some will be angry at the suggestions that 
they do exist. 

At the outset we have been very careful to consult with 
leading thinkers in all departments of life. There is no 
denomination of the church, and no civilized form of reli- 
gion that is not represented in our following. This book has 
the good will and approval of all these classes of people. 
Every creed has placed its stamp of endorsement on what we 
are about to say. 

In addition to these prominent friendships, we have the 
support of every profession and every line of business. Sensi- 
ble and thoughtful people are very much in earnest in their 
approval of the plan and purposes of this book. A vast out- 
side class has also been reached ; including men and women 
who are either lukewarm toward religion or who are arrayed 
against it. The teaching of psychic laws has softened their 
hostility, and brought them much nearer to the beliefs that 
they at first denied. 

We oppose no creed and no belief. 

We enjoy the friendship of all people, except those who 



2 4 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

are steeped in the rank teachings of charlatans whose pre- 
tended systems are sheer fabrications. When this book comes 
into the hands of some such hair-brained believer, it is un- 
welcome, and we are glad that this is so. The support of 
that class of persons would discredit any work that exposed 
their follies. 

All men and women of well-balanced minds and good 
sense are arrayed against any belief that drags in the mud the 
most sacred ties of existence. Their minds are well-balanced 
and their judgment is sound because they are thoughtful. 
They think not merely on the surface of things, but deep 
down into the causes. They think of the past out of which 
humanity originated; and of the future toward which hu- 
manity is rushing in the river of ceaseless flow. 

They see their friends cut down in life; their loved ones 
swept away from their midst, never more to return. At the 
grave they linger, and soon realize that the body will molder 
into the very clay out of which it was made. They look up- 
ward and ask themselves the question, Is there another life, 
or is this the end of all? 

Do you know that at this very hour there are millions of 
men and women of the highest intelligence who are asking 
that question? For an answer they are directed to some 
preacher. He opens the Old Testament or the New, and 
finds there an affirmative reply. But it does not convince. 
How do you know? they ask. My faith tells me so, is the 
reply. It does not satisfy, and the awful fact stands out to- 
day that those who have built their hopes on faith find their 
hold slipping away in the moments of crucial test. This is 
to be deplored. We wish it were not so. 

A blind belief closes the mind against truth. 

Results alone are the proofs of power. At the beginning 
of the era in which we live, which takes us back nearly two 
thousand years, there was almost no sincerity in any religion. 
The conscience was seared ; the soul was paralyzed in every 
kind of worship. No moral or religious system had appeared 



TREND OF THE TIMES 241 

on earth that could prevent the increase of wickedness. The 
facts are too well known to be in dispute. The person who 
challenges them is ignorant of history, both secular and 
scriptural. 

Results are the only proofs of power. 

Since the dawn of the new era the world at times has been 
better than ever before in its existence. Christianity is the 
best offering in the form of religion that has ever come to 
humanity; but it lacks the power to check wickedness; not 
because of its own inherent virtue, but through ignorance 
of its meaning. The world sadly needs a practical and uni- 
versal adoption of its three great precepts: " Peace on earth, 
good will to men;" "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" and 
" Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." 

Proofs of the results of any teachings are the only meas- 
ure of their value. 

Where can peace on earth be found? 

Among the Christian nations of earth, what one is not 
armed for war? In the cities of the land what one will 
dismiss its police and take the consequences? Why are 
more than one hundred thousand policemen parading the 
streets of our Christian cities in America this very night? 
A chief said to us not long ago: " If the police of this city 
were to be dismissed, in three hours there would arise an 
army of criminals, mingled with five times their number of 
others who would take possession of the property and as- 
sault the women of all our better homes." 

There is supreme potency in the teachings of religion 
if they were administered in a manner that would take hold 
of the consciences of men. But results tell the story of 
failure and success. Where they have succeeded they have 
reached the psychic life within. Where they have failed, 
they have touched only the physical mind and the physical 
existence. Lift the curtain from over the many centuries 
of bigotry, torture and bloodshed that have marked the 
progress of this religion; and you will find the rack, the 



242 



THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 



wheel, the dungeon, the Inquisition, and the stake; these 
indeed are not the teachings of a religion of peace on earth 
and good will to men. All through the centuries the bloody 
trail of suffering has left its marks on the face of the globe, 
telling of man's inhumanity to man. It was one long cry 
of horror that arose from the administration of this re- 
ligion. 

Yet the fault is not an inherent one. 

It is sublime in its teachings. They can never be ex- 
celled. The world needs them. But they are not suited to 
the physical mind and the physical existence of humanity ; 
nor were they so intended. The fault then is with the ad- 
ministration of that religion. 

It is wrong to condemn the religion itself. The Ten 
Commandments of the old regime constitute a perfect re- 
ligion in themselves. The New and the Old Testaments 
together have a value that the world cannot find elsewhere. 

Because civilization and the Caucasian or white race 
came out of the East hand in hand with the teachings of 
the Old Testament, and because modern progress has been 
always associated with that and the New Testament, no 
person has a right to oppose them. There is nothing to 
take their places. But their greatest enemies are those who 
blindly defend the administration of these great teachings. 

The ostrich who, when pursued, hides his head in the 
sand, and exposes his whole body to assault, is not less wise 
than the people who refuse to understand that the trend of 
the times is decidedly against the highest and noblest re- 
ligion ever given to the world. When the barbarians began 
to draw close to Rome, the citizens of that great empire 
closed their eyes to the fact and ridiculed those who saw the 
impending crisis. When the American nation was invaded 
in the war of 1812, a few of its people saw the peril of the 
Capital; but they were maligned for their foresight, with 
the result that the city fell and its grand public buildings 
were burned. 



TREND OF THE TIMES 243 

Every disaster casts its shadow before it. 

The trouble is to-day that the people who array them- 
selves against the church, do not desire to locate the real 
cause of the danger; they would raze to the ground the 
structure itself instead of changing the methods of its ad- 
ministration. They hide their heads in the sand and do 
not see the approach of conditions that make the trend of 
the times extremely hazardous. 

On the other hand the blind defenders of everything con- 
nected with religion, refuse to arouse themselves to the 
needs of the hour. They content themselves with a self- 
satisfied belief that they are all right. To them the fol- 
lowing facts, which they indignantly deny, are a source of 
annoyance : 

1. The splitting up of the creeds and denominations of 
religion into innumerable enmities, each against the other, 
or the refusal to accept one another's beliefs, is absolutely 
positive evidence of gross wrong in the administration of 
religion. If the teachings reached the psychic life of men 
and women, there could not possibly be more than one 
creed and one denomination. Now the diamond is ground 
into diamond dust. Still new creeds appear. Every new 
effort to establish unity of religion, results in a new de- 
nomination. This is bound to demoralize the world. 

2. The eagerness with which thousands and hundreds of 
thousands embrace new religious cults, shows the yearning 
after something more effective than the prevailing creeds 
of to-day. Spiritualism, Theosophy, Christian Science, Mor- 
monism and numerous other digressions from the religion 
that has marched side by side with civilization, are sweep- 
ing into their ranks millions of people who have lost faith 
in the efficacy of the old time doctrines ; and this splitting up 
of the theology of the past will continue until there will be 
more church denominations than the human mind can di- 
gest. This tendency is proof positive of the failure in the 
administration of the prevailing religion. How any de- 



244 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

fender of the church can stand idly by and behold the en- 
croaching sea engulf his possessions, is hard to understand, 
except on the short-sighted policy of the ostrich. Rev. Dr. 
Aked regards the situation as extremely dangerous. 

3. As a result of the decadence of unity in the church, 
those who remain loyal to its spirit, have only a weak al- 
legiance. One of our closest friends, a clergyman of the 
very best standing, told us that he saw a great church of 
his youth grow up and increase ; and when the tide of 
wealth brought success and luxury, he saw ninety per cent, 
of the members drift out of religious habits into wanton 
amusement and debauchery. In another city, a pastor told 
us that his people who had been more devout, had become 
gamblers ; the men and some of the women patronizing the 
race track, and the wealthy classes enslaving themselves with 
the gambling game of bridge whist. Divorces, suicides and 
double lives had followed. He asked, " Where then was the 
power in the religion they professed?" — He still preaches, 
but in a smaller locality where he can be at peace with his 
God. — Clergymen themselves are discouraged at the weak- 
ening of religion throughout the civilized world. In Rus- 
sia, Austria, Italy, Spain, France and other Christian coun- 
tries, there is so little sincerity in the practice of religion 
that no one really expects anything purely devout from them. 
In America, despite the fact that a small percentage of 
men and a larger percentage of women are inclined to be 
in earnest, the fact remains that they are growing fewer in 
numbers all the time. 

4. This is the hand-writing on the wall. If you could 
look into the personal and private lives of church members, 
how many would by their example induce you to take up 
their profession of faith and mode of worship? Some there 
are who are noble, true, exalted even in their sincerity. 
But the great majority are weak, and their ranks are re- 
ceiving accretions all the time. This fact is known, and 
it is most disheartening to clergymen. 



TREND OF THE TIMES 245 

5. Never before in the history of the world has the pre- 
vailing religion been subject to the allied attacks of learned 
men within and without its walls. Colleges, universities, 
writers, scientists, theologians, and even the wise men who 
hold places of trust in the pulpit and in the offices of the 
church, find flaws with the writings on which their teach- 
ings are based. They ask for freedom of thought, and 
often indulge in freedom of speech. Once the followers of 
Voltaire and Paine made up the army of attack; but now 
the defection is within the walls. 

6. Finally in the rank and file of the church members 
themselves we see the weakening of the hold of religion. 
Nine men out of ten are much more strongly drawn to the 
comic pages of the great Sunday newspapers than to the 
services in the church. The baseball games of the day be- 
fore and the Sunday contests arouse their enthusiasm to the 
highest pitch ; while their wives, pitying them, allow them 
the much needed rest on the Sabbath morning. The eager 
rush for wealth, the desire to move in fashionable circles, 
the indulgence in entertainments, amusements, night din- 
ners and club life, all conspire to make religion a dull theme. 

No honest, thinking, conservative person can deny any 
of these impeachments. They are true, and only the blinded 
brain refuses to recognize the fact. 

What holds the church together to-day? 

It is the onward march of the Angel of Death. When 
our loved ones die, we ask the question, shall we meet them 
again? It seems an outrage on the race to think that death 
ends all. There is so much suffering in this world, that 
some recompense should be offered in another life. Justice 
Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United States says 
that injustice is so prevalent in this life, there must be a 
further existence to give a counter balance to our ills. The 
sheer mockery of living on this planet, being born without 
choice, growing up amid dangers that are constantly threat- 
ening death, and finding nothing but an ever vanishing end 



246 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

of a rainbow of hope leading us on to the grave, these and 
scores of other forms of emptiness make life here a gloomy 
failure. Not one person would accept such a tenure of ex- 
istence, if the choice could be made at the start. 

The sweetest thing in life is the bondage of love ; the 
love of parents for their children; of children for their par- 
ents ; of brothers and sisters ; of husband and wife when 
truly mated ; of friends and dear companions ; and where 
love springs out of the psychic nature, it is as enduring as 
the skies. Death breaks this bondage. Loved faces are 
hidden by the shroud ; eyes are closed forever ; the clods fall 
heavily on the encased body; and there is an end. 

Then the mute appeal, the prayer, the hope, the tears, the 
anguish, the awful doubt will come and touch deeply the 
psychic nature. Advice is sought. Who can bury your 
dead ? The church. Who can suggest what the future has 
in store? The church. Man has nowhere else to turn. 
He is helpless. When the years have piled on their weight, 
he lifts up his heart to the song of hope, but it is sung only 
in the church. For these reasons, weak as its administra- 
tion may be, religion will always take some hold on human- 
ity, and the preacher will always be in demand. 

But the trend of the times is toward a new administra- 
tion of the religion of the church. All classes of thoughtful 
men believe this; and it is being proclaimed world-wide in 
every land. 

This chapter was written for a year before it was sent to 
press. During that time copies were sent to leading clergy- 
men in all the great religious denominations for their ap- 
proval or disapproval; and in every instance the reply came 
back in substance: "By all means print it and send it 
broadcast over the world. It will do needed good." And, 
wherever it has gone, it has aroused the psychic spirit and 
set in motion a new administration of the prevailing religion. 




247 
CHAPTER XXXVII 



1THE PSYCHIC AWAKENING.! 
I I 



INCERE men and women are the only vic- 
tors in any movement. They are slow to 
anger. They are patient with the beliefs of 
others. They antagonize very few. They see 
a certain goal, and aim to reach it in their 
work ; letting opposition and antagonism crum- 
ble of their own weight as they go onward and 
upward. The first rule for success in any undertaking is 
to be in earnest. A great man, giving advice to a young 
friend, said: " If you are always in earnest, fully in earnest, 
you cannot fail in anything." Insincerity is a falsehood ut- 
tered by the soul. 

Some facts are so well known that they are corner stones 
in life. 

The first two such facts are these : Man possesses a physi- 
cal mind and a physical body. But as a structure cannot be 
built of two corners alone, there are two more and they 
are these: Man possesses a psychic mind and a psychic life. 
We now have the four corner stones on which to build. 
All species below man are inferior in faculties. They are 
only physical, and of lesser value even in that respect. The 
possession of a psychic nature may ennoble even the lesser 
classes of men. 

But the sharp line that is drawn between the human 
species and those below it, is one that separates the first two 
endowments from the last two. Man alone is given the 
psychic mind and life. Yet faculties may exist and remain 
dormant from non-use. A child that talks to no other per- 



248 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

son would never possess the gift of speech. If he is kept in 
prison from birth and has no experiences except to eat and 
sleep, he would have no mind at all, not even the physical; 
his brain would be smooth and imbecile. If he is shut up 
in a dark cave, he would be blind. Thus the gifts of na- 
ture are useful only as they are developed by activity. 

Following out this law, it is known that the great masses 
of humanity, all of whom are given a psychic mind and a 
psychic life, fail to develop these natures if they do not use 
them. 

The purpose of the Shaftesbury Society is to teach men and 
women how to become acquainted with their psychic na- 
tures. Most people live and die in their physical being. 
There is not the slightest doubt of this fact. To-day more 
than any time in the history of recent civilization, the phys- 
ical nature is paramount. Hence the trend of the times is 
toward no church and no religion; but instead it leads to 
doubt, insincerity, failure and suicide. 

The psychic nature cannot take the life of the body. 

The physical has nothing to live for, and sees in this life 
only emptiness and abject mockery on every hand. The 
physical nature is reckless of existence. The hordes of bar- 
barians, cruel and debased in every sentiment in life, have 
no fear of death; and when you see a people that believes it 
is better to die than to live, you have only a physical mass 
of humanity. 

The psychic nature enjoys life on earth, and has an in- 
stinctive feeling that heaven is a step beyond the purposes 
of true living here; in which creed they are not mistaken. 

The physical nature seeks power, gain and advantage 
over others. This leads to graft, deception and crime. 
The psychic nature is given enough for the full enjoyment 
of living, and is happy in its possession. Poverty is rarely 
the continued lot of such a person. 

The reason of this fact is the better development of the 
faculties of physical magnetism, physical telepathy, psychic 



THE PSYCHIC AWAKENING 249 

magnetism and psychic telepathy; all of which furnish su- 
preme mastery over the vicissitudes of life. In furtherance 
of these advantages, it is the hope of the Shaftesbury So- 
ciety to enroll men and women of every grade of rank and 
position, and note their steady progress toward better suc- 
cess and better possessions on earth. We teach the improve- 
ment of the body and its faculties, and the acquisition of 
wealth and pleasure along psychic lines; not the gloomy as- 
pect of a depressing religion. 

The physical nature feeds the stomach until it breaks 
down, or is a slave to stimulants, or caters to its mouth and 
palate, seeks constant amusement, is nervously over-wrought 
or sluggishly lazy, hates the duties of practical life, and 
sees nothing but what can serve its selfish desires. A po- 
litical leader that would sway such natures must appeal to 
the dinner pail, or arouse prejudices that are founded on the 
hatred of others. A religious leader that would sway such 
natures must preach hell fire, or predict the end of the 
world. 

On the other hand the psychic nature is content with 
enough to eat, does not abuse the temple of the body with 
rich food, avoids riotous pleasures, invites calm nerves, well 
balanced minds and unselfish traits of character, and is at 
peace with all the world. Only to such a nature have the 
words any meaning which say: " Peace on earth, good will 
to men." 

To a physical mind and physical body, peace brings only 
sluggishness, or laziness, or idleness, or a restless discon- 
tent. Life appears dead, and it seems as if nothing is go- 
ing on. To the psychic nature, peace is not inactivity; for 
the psychic life is full of action, full of events, full of in- 
tense pleasures and full of results. 

Thus you can see that this new kind of life is very little 
understood. It is the dawn of something that the world 
has never seen before. Let us go further and find an 
awakening into its realm. 



250 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

In all genuineness of belief, you who have followed the 
present work up to this stage, are surely of the opinion that 
the trend of the times, as shown in the preceding chapter, 
is to be deplored; and you do not 'doubt any of the state- 
ments made therein. You are willing to lend a hand in 
improving these conditions; especially when we say that 
we do not wish to set up a new religion. Our purpose is 
to oppose no creed and no denomination. We will not con- 
sent to the introduction of any further sects, as the world 
has hundreds too many now. 

The Shaftesbury Society is personal ; not private, and not 
secret. 

It seeks no new public organization; it is merely a friendly 
association for home thoughts and home study. What prog- 
ress its members make will be personal and purely within 
the home life. There is to be no coming out to meetings; 
no union with any people that will bring members together ; 
no neglect of other duties or affiliations; no taking away of 
an interest in church or creed; but merely such a personal 
class as might exist for the purpose of gaining knowledge on 
any subject. One person may enjoy the study of botany; 
another of history ; another of nature ; and so on ; and yet 
such studies would not take away the interest in other duties 
and associations, but rather might increase it. 

With this understanding, let us proceed to the steps that 
will tend to develop and build up the psychic nature w r ithin 
every man and woman. 

The underlying principle is that use develops, and non- 
use destroys any faculty or endowment. For this reason 
most people go through life with physical minds- and phys- 
ical natures; dying and returning to the fund from which 
they came; useless, aimless and hopeless. Their psychic na- 
tures have never been developed, and hence the adminis- 
tration of religion cannot be of help to them. 



251 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

i i 



<!> 



THE DAWN. 







EW PERSONS are able to clearly recognize 
•their psychic natures. It is true they have 
.glimpses of such existence, but for lack of cul- 
tivation they are not frequent. It is true that 
the psychic has all the time been trying to break 
through the physical; and more persistently in 
the present era than in any other age in the his- 
tory of the world. The phenomena that are so numerous 
when viewed in their total sum, are unimpeachable proofs 
of the purpose of some higher power to force a new regime 
upon humanity at this stage of the progress of civilization. 
There is a way in which these glimpses may be increased 
and the presence of the psychic life made decided and per- 
manent. Before taking up the consideration of this sub- 
ject, it is important that the value of such life should be un- 
derstood. 

The two natures should be carefully compared. 

1. The physical nature is restless, discontented and fret- 
ful; or else lazy, indifferent and sluggish. 

2. The psychic nature is calm, contented, progressive, 
active and full of the enjoyment of life. 

3. The physical nature is selfish and complaining, or use- 
less and weak. 

4. The psychic nature is interested in the welfare of 
others, is generous, noble, useful and strong. 

5. The physical nature is cowardly, or else reckless. If 
reckless it is willing to kill for gain, or slay its own body 
when tired of living. 



252 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

6. The psychic nature never has homicide in its heart. 
It can never be induced to take human life for gain, or its 
own life because of recklessness. 

7. The physical nature allows its body to become dis- 
eased and its mind to become insane under strain. 

8. The psychic nature honors the physical body as the 
temple of life, and the physical mind as the intelligent and 
controlling power of physical existence. The psychic mind 
maintains both health and guardianship over the physical 
body and mind. For this reason, if for no other, there 
should be a general adoption of psychic regime among the 
people everywhere. 

9. The physical nature seeks amusement and interest in 
gossip, entertainment, feeding, excitement, chance and many 
prohibited temptations. Luck, fortune-telling, supersti- 
tion, nervous fears and excesses of various kinds produce re- 
sults that the cowardly repent of too late in life, and the 
reckless curse till they die. 

10. The psychic nature does not believe in luck, but 
studies cause and effect. Superstition and occultism are 
regarded as the shadows of ignorance, as the truth never 
hides in the dark. 

There are two roads to the development of the psychic 
nature : 

The first is taken by the direct route of power and knowl- 
edge ; but as these four processes are complex and expensive, 
they are placed wholly within the Psychic Society as de- 
scribed in the final pages of this book. It is to avoid the 
cost of the four systems set forth therein that the Shaftes- 
bury Society has been founded. Books of the kind that 
make up the Great Psychic Society represent immense ex- 
pense in their production, and are the result of years of 
tremendous labor in conjunction with thousands of associates 
and co-workers. It is very evident that they could not be 
issued without involving cost that cannot be borne by one 
person in a hundred of those who own the present volume. 



THE DA WN 253 

For this reason a plain, easy and popular course of de- 
velopment of the psychic nature should be provided in the 
present book; and herein the Shaftesbury Society, with its 
freedom from cost to members, is privileged to do a vast 
amount of public good. 

It is the personal wish of the author that there shall be 
no expense of any kind placed upon members. 

We come now to the second road to be pursued, and this 
belongs exclusively to this Society. It will be traveled in 
stages and these will follow in the order of their effective- 
ness. 

RECOGNITION of the PSYCHIC MIND. 

The method to be adopted in securing a recognition of 
the fact that you possess a psychic mind, is to begin with 
questions. It is one of the first laws of psychic life that 
the mind opens as it is used. All faculties depend on this 
law for their unfolding; and it is a well recognized princi- 
ple in every kind of existence. 

In order to begin the development of your psychic mind, 
let it be set to doing some of the work that now is thrown 
on the physical mind, or that is never done at all. 

Go to some room by yourself where all influences about 
you may be withdrawn ; or, better still, follow the habits 
of geniuses in the professions and take the first minutes of 
of the morning or the last minutes of the evening that be- 
long to the waking state of your physical brain. We will 
see what this is. 

To understand it, it is well to remember that the physic 
mind breaks through its barriers into the physical mind when 
the latter is thrown into a condition known as lapse or 
total inactivity. For this reason there is a close relation- 
ship between the operations of the medium, the clairvoyant, 
the subject of hypnotism and the genius. The first two go 
into a trance and it is true that, when their work is gen- 
uine, they have no knowledge of what transpires, no mat- 



25<. THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

ter how startling their revelations may be. The subject 
of hypnosis also passes into a sleep and has no memory of 
what takes place, even when he wakes into the condition of 
control. 

With the genius it is the same, but he is not in a trance; 
for the higher up the scale of telepathy we ascend the less 
necessity there is to pass into the state of unconsciousness and 
to cut off the physical mind from the knowledge of what is 
taking place. 

Yet the physical mind must be emptied of all its activ- 
ities if we wish to recognize the psychic mind. This does 
not mean sleep or the loss of consciousness in any degree. 

No person can go to sleep at night whose brain is full of 
thought. Perfect slumber is caught just at that point where 
the mind empties itself of all thought. One degree this 
side of that emptying, and the mind is not empty. One de- 
gree the other side of it and the physical mind sleeps. 

But the psychic mind never slumbers, is never uncon- 
scious and is never ill or weak. It is either present or ab- 
sent, but goes through life waiting for the call that in most 
instances never comes. It is always at hand, always ready, 
but rarely a known guest. As far as it is present at all it is 
perfect in all its endowments. 

The difficulty is to bring into the physical mind a knowl- 
edge of the presence of the psychic mind. While the latter 
breaks through in many small ways, and sometimes in start- 
ling phenomena, it so easily alarms the former that there is 
an inclination to avoid it as much as possible. Hence it 
does not make itself manifest very often. 

To show the tremendous importance of catching the 
period of lapse when the physical brain is emptied of its 
activities, let us see what actually occurs then. 

i. This period comes when sleep draws near or when it 
is passing off. 

2. The using of the psychic mind is most effective when 
the physical mind is in a state of lapse. All geniuses have 



THE DAWN 255 

been examples of this law, and there is not one exception 
to be found in all history. 

3. All dreams occur in a lapse, but generally in that 
which attends waking up. No person dreams who is not 
almost awake. 

4. All thinkers make use of the flashes of thought that 
come out of the psychic mind, and always at the time they 
are flashed into the physical brain. In this way all the in- 
ventions have occurred, all new ideas have been saved to 
the world, all the brilliant powers of art, of sculpture, of 
architecture, of human betterment and literary genius have 
had their birth. 

5. By the admission of men and women who have been 
of service to mankind in remarkable degree, it is a well 
proved fact that the moment of lapse just before going to 
sleep at night, and just after awakening in the night or at 
morning, is the most fruitful of all the periods in the twenty- 
four hours in which to catch the thoughts as they are flashed 
out of the psychic mind into the physical brain. If advan- 
tage were not taken of this law, the world would never know 
progress. 

6. Instance after instance might be recorded in these 
pages of the wonders of knowledge and light, of power and 
revelation, that have been lifted bodily, as it were, out of 
the psychic world into that of everyday existence. Almost 
every intelligent human being has had some notable expe- 
rience that might be related in support of this law. It is 
so well understood and so generally known, that no proof 
is required to maintain the proposition. 

7. It would thus appear that every man and woman has 
some of the elements of genius, since all have had wonder- 
ful ideas at times flashed out of the psychic mind into the 
physical brain. 

8. The lapse occurs not only at the time stated, but also 
in any important period when a gigantic effort of the mind 
is required, and the individual is not swept away by its 



256 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

greatness. In the latter case, he is made nervous and be- 
comes weak and useless. But, like Edison locking himself 
up for the night to solve a problem of importance to the 
world, he faces the task with the consciousness of being its 
master, and he is alone with it. But he can do nothing ex- 
traordinary as long as his physical brain is in the supremacy. 
There comes the lapse, and if he cannot pass into that state, 
he can do nothing. This he very well knows. If some 
person could look into the room, he would see the inventor 
oblivious to all that was transpiring about him. If the 
building were on fire, it might take several calls to arouse 
him to the fact. Such experiences are common among men 
and women who have done gigantic tasks. Problems have 
been met and settled in the same way. Wives of great men 
know what it means to intrude upon them during their 
periods of absorption. 

9. A man who invented one of the most remarkable suc- 
cesses of the age, was a pupil of the author's, and after his 
great achievement told us that he got all his ideas at night 
just before falling asleep. Similar testimony has come from 
poets, writers, orators and others ; and it seems to have been 
their custom to take some part of their work to bed with 
them, place it under the pillow, and allow the physical mind 
to pass into its lapse. If they were too tired, they fell 
asleep. But often they were rewarded by the opening of 
the psychic mind and the flashing of some great idea into the 
physical brain. 

Having thus shown the method to be pursued we will 
next take up the system of questions that are to serve as a 
stimulant to the activities of the life behind the barrier. 

As this is a very important step, the next chapter will be 
devoted to it. 



257 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 



1 QUESTIONS. I 

W i 

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O YOU WISH to know that you possess a 
psychic mind? If so, the proof can be brought 
home to you in a most remarkable manner. 
The first step is to read the last chapter over 
and over again until you thoroughly under- 
stand its meaning. Adopt the suggestions as to 
the use of the mind at that part of the even- 
ing when it will lapse in the coming on of sleep. Follow 
the instructions as now given below: 

1. As you retire at night, take this book with you. Just 
before going to sleep, read carefully every word of chapter 
thirty-eight, which is the next preceding this chapter; no 
matter how many times you may have read it before. 

2. Then turn to page eight of this book and read the 
first statement which says : The universe is all physical ; or 
it is part physical and part something else. 

3. Then read the following questions: 

FIRST QUESTION.— Do you believe that the uriw 
verse is all physical ; the sun, the planets, the stars, the sky, 
the ether that fills all solids, liquids and space, the powers 
of gravity, of light, magnetism, thought, feeling, affection, 
love, telepathy, hope and reward ?..... 

SECOND QUESTION.— Do you believe that a part 
of the universe is physical ; by which is meant material ; 
while a part of it is something else that is not plwsical?. . . . 



It does not make any difference what you call the part 
that is not physical. That which is material, or which is re- 



258 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

latcd to material conditions, is called physical. The sub- 
stance of the earth is physical ; so are the animal and veg- 
etable kingdoms; so is the animal part of humanity; even 
the mind and the thoughts, feelings, desires and habits are 
physical when they have relation only to the animal nature. 
Thus hunger, lust, greed, selfishness and kindred moods are 
all physical. The lowest beast may possess them. 

If anything else exists in the universe it is called psychic 
for convenience of terms. This is the word that most aptly 
describes it. But if any person does not understand why 
the word psychic is employed, you may reply that it is so 
used because there is no other one word that can compre- 
hend as much. Nevertheless any person familiar with the 
true meaning of the word will agree that it is the exact 
term that describes what is included in its meaning. The 
word soul is not enough ; for that refers to the ethical or 
else to the spiritual nature of man, or perhaps to both; or 
maybe to the essence of life in all the animal kingdom. Phi- 
losophers differ in its use. Some regard the soul as both 
physical and psychic. The word spirit is also limited in its 
scope. Ethereal has come into use, but is discredited as 
being only the medium of passage for psychic life, as is seen 
in the deeper study of psychic telepathy. Psychic therefore 
is the needed word, and embraces all that is not physical. 

THIRD QUESTION.— Do you understand that the 
physical mind is the agent of intelligence of the five senses, 
including sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste? 



FOURTH QUESTION.— Do you understand that 
practically all human experiences and processes of reason- 
ing are the outgrowth of the many uses of the senses, run- 
ning often into the greatest depths of learning? 



FIFTH QUESTION.— Do you believe that there are 
unseen powers that surround or control human life? 



QUESTIONS 259 

SIXTH QUESTION. — How many unseen powers do 
you believe exist in this world, or about it, or beyond it?. . 



SEVENTH QUESTION.— Of the fourteen unseen 
powers referred to in chapter thirteen of this book, what 
ones can you state by name that you believe to exist ? 



It is not necessary to state what form or kind of being any 
power may seem to be. An influence, such as gravity, is a 
power, and a very great one at that. Whether any power 
has shape and exists as a person or personality, is immaterial 
at this stage of the work. 

It is not necessary that you believe in all fourteen of the 
unseen powers. For the purposes of this work, it is suffi- 
cient if you are convinced that there is at least one unseen 
power. Such influences as gravity, adhesion, cohesion, at- 
traction, centripetal force and centrifugal force, are parts of 
magnetism and altogether make up only the one power. 
Others also include lesser powers. 

EIGHTH QUESTION.— How many of the twenty- 
four propositions set forth in chapter one of this book are 
well understood by you ? 

NINTH QUESTION.— Read the twelfth proposition 
of chapter one and state if you understand that the earth is 
bound to the sun by the latter's influence, although more 
than ninety millions of miles away? 

TENTH QUESTION.— If man is controlled by the 
influence of the earth, and the earth is controlled by the in- 
fluence of the sun, can you believe it possible and even prob- 
able that the sun and its system are controlled by an in- 
fluence beyond the vision of the most powerful aids to the 
physical senses ? 

During the past year we have given these ten questions 
to a large number of our students and have asked them to 



2 6o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

follow the methods here prescribed ; adding the suggestion 
that the twelfth proposition of chapter one be made the ob- 
jective point of the thoughts just before falling to sleep at 
night; and to continue this for one month. In every in- 
stance the results have been decided. 

The psychic mind has made itself clearly known to all 
of them, and they were scattered in all parts of the civil- 
ized globe. There was no assistance from any other source, 
and no community of interest. The psychic mind became 
sharply defined as a separate mentality apart from the or- 
dinary brain. 

These students included men and women of the highest 
intelligence. There were officers of the army, officials of 
the government, judges of the highest courts, and practical 
business men, some prominent bankers, and well educated 
women in the ranks of our experimenters. Many of them 
did not believe the outcome possible until they experienced it. 

What they accomplished can be done likewise by you. 
We advised them to take these lessons, which were in manu- 
script form, to bed with them, and to dwell on the matters 
until they became very drowsy; then place the lessons under 
the pillow. This book should be treated in the same way. 
The reason for this is that the psychic mind does not sleep, 
and is active during the slumbers of the physical brain. A 
dream is a breaking through the latter, if it is a psychic 
dream. The nearness of the book is instinctively known. 
Wilson Barret, one of the greatest of English actors, stated 
that he always slept with the book of his play under his 
pillow every night. This seems like a weak bit of supersti- 
tion, but instead it is a psychological fact. 

The one great result is the recognition of the existence 
of the psychic brain. " I no longer have any doubt about 
it," is the general statement of all who have tried these 
tests. The habit of turning the mind over to the psychic 
function just before going to sleep at night is the best and 
most glorious of all experiences. The physical brain is given 



QUESTIONS 261 

its rest. It will not dream, for it cannot when the psychic 
is in control. 

God is a psychic being, and has none of the qualities of 
the physical ; and when you pass out of the waking hours 
into slumber at night, if you stimulate the psychic mind in 
so doing, you place yourself directly in the care and keeping 
of your Creator. This is a most beautiful experience. 
Here is a statement that has been concurred in by many 
others : " I have thought night after night for months of the 
twenty-four propositions, and have concentrated my mind 
on the twelfth, the fifteenth, and the last two; always just 
before falling asleep. I seem to drop into a most delicious 
repose, resting, delightful, clear as crystal in its scenes, and 
yet filled with consciousness for some minutes. The thought 
of new worlds being born, or new sun-systems being created, 
of kingdoms and empires in the heavens rising and falling, 
leads to long trains of other pictures until I believe that my 
mind has the power to visit other parts of the universe. It 
is all helpful to me in daily life, for I am stronger for it in 
every way." 

The experience recounted is merely the first activities of 
a long dormant psychic mind. 

The practical usefulness of this method is shown in the 
following extract from a letter written by a woman : 
" Three months ago, as you will recall, I was in great dis- 
tress of mind because my husband had met with misfortune 
in his business and was gradually losing his mind. He was 
despondent and constantly on the point of ending his life. 
I had to stay with him day and night. At that time I re- 
ceived the experiment lessons and got him interested in them 
with me. He fell asleep the first night after having been 
a victim for three weeks of insomnia. So much interested 
was he that he insisted on obeying every word of the in- 
structions for using the lessons, and he talked with me night 
after night of the twenty-four propositions, saying they were 
the greatest things he ever knew in all his life. I used to 



262 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

lie awake to watch him; but now he drops asleep easily with 
his face all happiness and a smile and kind word of good 
cheer on his lips. The change is genuine. He declares that 
his psychic mind will help him find a way out of his 
troubles." — One month later came a letter with these 
words : " The business trouble has been met and is no more. 
My husband has been given wonderful help from some 
power greater than his poor brain could understand. He 
has seen a great light." 

All true success in life is born of some power that man 
does not create. 

We wish to hear from all our readers who pursue these 
methods. 

We wish to know what are your answers to the ten ques- 
tions of this chapter. We wish to have you write them in 
ink on the dotted lines following the questions, and send us 
a copy of what you have written. We also w T ish you to 
repeat this test for one month, omitting no night in that 
period, and let us know what strength of evidence you have 
had of the presence of a psychic mind. 

The Shaftesbury Society will be able to accomplish more 
for the progress of civilization in the next few years than 
all other agencies combined have achieved in thousands of 
years, if we can have your replies to these questions, follow- 
ing a strict adoption of the plan suggested. Why? Be- 
cause every person who makes the test for a month, will 
have come into the possession of a new estate and new pow- 
ers. The accumulation of great numbers of people, making 
an irresistible mass of humanity, will move the whole world. 

It is not to be expected that anything can be accomplished 
if you go to bed exhausted with weariness, for sleep is sure 
to come on quickly. If you have the habit of falling in- 
stantly into sound slumber, it is better to adopt the fore- 
going methods by secluding yourself in some room in the 
early evening where you will not be interrupted, and at a 
time when you are not likely to need sleep. But in addition 



QUESTIONS 263 

to this it is always advisable to take a look at the propositions 
in chapter one for thirty nights in succession. They turn 
the mind in the psychic direction. The practice is a good 
one to maintain every night in the year. 

The psychic mind, no matter how slightly it may be stim- 
ulated, exercises a master influence over the physical mind. 
Many cases have come to our attention of persons being 
troubled with bad dreams and some with unpleasant sensa- 
tions bordering almost on visions when they would retire 
to their rooms at night. Some have been afraid to remain 
alone in any part of the house, even if it were well lighted. 
In all such cases where the psychic mind has been aroused, 
the effect has been to bring a wonderful clearness to the 
brain and to put an end to all bad dreams. 

A woman who had become quite nervous since the death 
of her husband, imagined at night after she had gone to bed 
and closed her eyes that he was walking about the room as 
had been his custom in life. So strong and fearful did this 
s.ensation become that she soon saw his form and believed 
he came to her and placed his hands on her face as she would 
fall into the first stages of sleep. She wrote: " I am sure 
that I shall go insane. I cannot endure this any longer." — 
At that time we were sending out the experiments referred 
to in several of our earlier works on this and other subjects, 
and one set of test-lessons were sent to her, embodying the 
teachings of this chapter. She gladly hailed them, and lost 
no time in mastering their requirements. The result was 
speedy and certain. In a month she sent word : " I have 
found the only cure that can be had. I am now in perfect 
control of myself, and I do not care whether or not my dead 
husband or any other ghost comes to me; they cannot 
frighten me. . . . What I have learned is this: the 
visions and sounds that I had thought were signs of ghostly 
visits, and which would have been held up as proofs of 
ghosts, were only the fear within my own brain, and this 
has gone, and the visits too." — The accumulation of such 



264 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

testimony from all parts of the world and all classes of peo- 
ple of intelligence, cannot be passed lightly over. 

What is true in any one case, is true in any other similar 
case, and this fact we have found out with certainty. 

Whatever is unpleasant in the brain, whatever leads to 
fear, illness of mind, bad dreams, visions, apprehension and 
repulsive moods, is born of the physical brain or is con- 
taminated there. When the psychic mind has sway, all is 
reversed. There are no ghosts, no delirium, no uncanny 
sounds, no ice-cold hands to alarm, no horrible forms any- 
where that come to drive the brain mad. All is peace and 
calm. 

This early stage in our studies has done great service, 
for it has shown the nature of the psychic mind, slight 
though it may be; and it has produced convincing proof of 
the purpose of the higher powers to lead humanity away 
from the darkness of superstition, fear and occult beliefs. 

Later on it will be seen that the psychic mind lives in a 
white light. 

While separated by barriers from the physical mind, it 
is a part of human life and as such it exercises control over 
both the mind and the body, affecting even the lowest ani- 
mal instincts and transforming them. Doubtless for cen- 
turies there have been these experiences and they have done 
much to satisfy pure men and women of the exalted nature 
of a higher existence. 




265 
CHAPTER XL. 



1 UNSEEN AGENCIES. 1 



•E HAVE THUS FAR taken the only step 
that is possible in the opening of the psychic 
mind without the aid of other training courses : 
but what has been accomplished may be made 
^ s larger in scope by pursuing the plan of ques- 
tions in a broader way. As has been repeatedly 
announced, the development of physical mag- 
netism brings much more power, as it causes the nervous sys- 
tem and the vital life of the body to take on a new exist- 
ence. The power of physical magnetism quickly magnifies 
the clearness of the physical brain, and thus prevents that 
contamination that has been referred to in the latter part 
of the last chapter. Magnetism is power and telepathy is 
knowledge; and these two corner stones have, since the 
world began, been the foundation principles of power and 
knowledge in every successful human life. 

But great progress and great gain may be achieved 
through this present book alone. It is the purpose of the 
Shaftesbury Society to save to you the expense and labor 
of going to those fountain-heads of life that give name and 
activity to the Great Psychic Society. In as much as we 
can be helpful in this lesser way, we wish to do so in the 
highest degree possible. 

The ten questions of the last chapter have been selected 
because they compel the psychic mind to awaken. To a 
physical brain they lack interest. Until they set you to 
thinking, they have not aroused your psychic mind. When 
you begin to take the least interest in any of them, then 



266 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

your psychic mind is awakening. To hasten and increase 
this activity, the periods of seclusion and lapse from the 
active physical mind have been selected, as experience proves 
such times to be important aids to this development. 

You must remember that the man who has a great work 
to do, must be left alone. The writer who cannot be sep- 
arated from the interruptions of the day, never accomplishes 
anything. The preacher who, in the midst of writing his 
sermon, must respond to the calls of others, will give his 
hearers on the following Sunday a dull production. Power 
comes from inspiration, and inspiration comes from the lapse 
of the physical mind, secured in the ways that great men 
have adopted in all the centuries that have followed. You 
must therefore respect such usages. 

The first ten questions belong to the first month of tests. 
They take no time from your other duties, as you can form 
no better habit than that of falling asleep at night with 
your thoughts on the problems of the universe. It is an old 
saying that what you are when you fall to sleep at night 
and when you first awaken in the morning, year in and year 
out, will be what you are all day long, all the year long, all 
the life long, and in the great hereafter. Think this over. 

It is a great proposition. 

There are ten more questions that should follow and not 
precede those given in the last chapter. Be careful to re- 
serve them until you have made the full month of tests as 
stated. These new questions refer to channels of informa- 
tion that do not employ the five senses. 

ELEVENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever received 
in your mind the ideas, thoughts or purposes of other per- 
sons ? 

TWELFTH QUESTION.— Have such ideas and 
thoughts related to ordinary matters ? 

THIRTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever re- 
ceived ideas or thoughts that seemed greater than you 
could express in words? 



UNSEEN AGENCIES 267 

FOURTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever had 
flashed into your mind some great thought that pertained 
to matters not of earth and not of this life? 

FIFTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever had 
premonitions, warnings, or feelings that have related to 
events about to happen or to some theme of great moment 
and importance ? 

These five questions will mean more to you after you 
have been careful to complete .the tests of the last chapter, 
and w T hen your psychic mind is more alert. 

As all human beings have at times received the ideas and 
thoughts of others, there will be no one who will fail to 
answer yes to the eleventh question. We know thousands 
of people and have never yet found one who had not 
had thoughts come into his mind from the minds of others 
and by channels other than the senses. 

All the questions imply means of transit not ordinary. 

The physical mind is constantly receiving ideas, thoughts 
and purposes on subjects that pertain to material life. As 
human activities are far greater in such existence, the pass- 
ing of thoughts is more frequent in this realm. Some brains 
become so acute that they are able to divine the words and 
plans that are about to be spoken, but in advance. Hun- 
dreds of pages might be written on the aid that keen brains 
get from surmising what is left unsaid in the minds of 
others who think they are able to conceal their designs. 
Strongly developed psychic minds are never deceived. 

More than this the capable man of affairs will keep ahead 
of those with whom he does business, and will often cut 
matters short without lessening their importance. Mr. J. 
P. Morgan furnishes an illustration of this fact in thou- 
sands of instances every year. His time is so valuable and 
his undertakings so vast that he is compelled to come to the 
point in the shortest space of time with all whom he meets. 
To their surprise he arrives at the focus of their purposes 
before they have more than unfolded their first ideas to him. 



268 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

He knows what they seek and a few sentences settle the 
business one way or the other. 

SIXTEENTH QUESTION.— When an idea comes 
into your mind from the mind of another person, and not 
through the channels of the ordinary senses, how do you 
think it is conveyed ? 

SEVENTEENTH QUESTION.— How do you think 
the power operates that keeps the earth within control of 
the sun ? 

As the earth is a heavy ball floating by itself in space, 
and the sun is another orb, more than ninety millions of 
miles away; and, as there is no cord, chain or leash that 
holds the earth to the sun, in what way does the power act 
that controls this planet? If you have ideas that help to 
make such influence clear, you will begin to understand 
the subtle power that one mind can send out to another, 
called magnetism ; and also the method by which one mind 
can secure the ideas, thoughts and purposes from the mind 
of another person. In other words, you must get away 
from the belief that nothing is known unless it is conveyed 
by the sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste. 

EIGHTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever felt 
the power of intuition? State in what way 

NINETEENTH QUESTION.— Assuming that na- 
ture in hundreds of ways displays special design toward 
humanity, can you understand that she is an intelligent 
power that is given the duty of sustaining life on earth until 
some goal has been reached for which this world was created ? 



TWENTIETH QUESTION.— Acting through the 
law of instinct, does nature seem to you to be an aimless 
blind force? 

These inquiries demand some genuine thought, and they 
cannot be tossed aside as of little value. Let your replies 



UNSEEN AGENCIES 269 

be made with ink in the places left for them in this chapter, 
so that you may have them to look back upon as other steps 
of progress may be made in the years to come. 

No human being can live on earth in the true purpose of 
existence until he understands more of the powers that sur- 
round him than the animal mind of man can ever know. 
He has something within him that is of far greater value 
than the entity of the beast. He may never know it ; and, so, 
he has but one destiny, that of the animal. There is no re- 
ligion that can save him, and failure has been marked all 
along the trail of the last twenty bloody centuries. Charity 
is not the forgiving angel that will make of him something 
more than he was willing to make of himself. 

The first thing to be accomplished is for man to recog- 
nize the existence and presence of his psychic mind ; and 
from that step he will rise to a knowledge of the psychic 
life that is also his, if he pursues the only course that can 
bring such knowledge. 

To ascertain that there are such powers about him as the 
ten questions of this chapter imply, must result in a wide 
unfolding of his psychic nature. The animal mind has 
never thought of anything but the relationship of animal 
life; no matter how civilized it may become. When the 
psychic mind starts its activities, they affect every phase 
of the animal nature, turning all paths around and making 
a new destiny for man. 

Thinking is life. It is power. It is greater than any 
of the facts that fill in the details of routine existence. If 
you think in the right direction, you will live in the right 
way. If you think as an animal, you will so live. If you 
turn your face down, your mind will grovel ; if you turn it 
up, you will become exalted. If you start with the study of 
the unseen powers that surround human life, and think deep 
enough and far enough, you will think clear through to 
God. 




270 

CHAPTER XLI. 



COMPOSITE LIFE. I 



UBMITTING these propositions to many 
leaders in the advanced thought of the world 
today, the unanimous opinion has been ex- 
pressed that they constitute the most important 
theme as well as the highest duty of the age 
in which we live; first to understand and then 
to adopt them. Never before has the four- 
sided temple of existence been seen in its true meaning. 
The old divisions started with but two ideas; the body and 
the soul. Then the third was introduced, that of the mind. 
But since the physical brain is the agent of the five senses, 
and since it has been established that there is a psychic mind, 
a new division is necessary. 

It is generally agreed that the name of the psychic mind 
is the sub-conscious faculty. Yet it is as distinctly a mind 
as is the physical; and if one is to be called mind the other 
is fully entitled to that name. 

More than this, as time goes on, and certainly in the next 
five years, further discoveries of the powers and endowments 
of the psychic mind will be made on such a scale as to 
startle the world ; for we are now on the threshold of new 
facts never before dreamed of. The Shaftesbury Society, 
in which membership is free, will help in many ways; and 
the more technical organization, the Great Psychic Society, 
will secure broader and deeper knowledge of the purposes 
of life. The results are constantly proving more and more 
the important nature of the psychic mind as a grand division 
of existence. 

Thus far it is certain that the physical body, the physical 



COMPOSITE LIFE 271 

mind and the psychic mind constitute three of the parts of 
man. 

Inasmuch as there is a psychic mind in addition to a physi- 
cal mind, the plan of life would be most incomplete if 
there were no psychic body to make the fourth part. But 
this is merely a deduction, and logic does not always prove 
a fact. 

Investigation turns to other sources than theory, and the 
evidence of the existence of the psychic body are many and 
conclusive. This grand division belongs to the gigantic 
work, Psychic Telepathy, now in preparation. 

But every member of the Shaftesbury Society may secure 
recognition of the psychic body by the methods to be sug- 
gested in the next few chapters. This recognition is de- 
cisive and satisfactory. 

In the start it is important that the few basic facts already 
set forth in the earlier parts of this book shall be clearly 
understood. 

1. The physical body is born of earth, is material, lives 
by constant processes of change, ripens, dies and returns to 
the lap of earth. 

2. It contains something more than earth, for it is known 
to possess a guiding physical intelligence, called the mind. 

3. It also contains something still beyond its physical in- 
telligence, for the proofs of the existence of the psychic mind 
are overwhelming at the present day. 

4. As the physical mind is required to guide the activities 
of the physical body, so the psychic mind is needed for the 
purpose of affording an intelligent leadership to the psychic 
body. 

5. The greatest fact connected with the phys'cal body is 
its certainty of death. 

6. The psychic mind is known to be invulnerable against 
any of the influences that break up the physical life of 
either the body or mind. The latter sleeps, becomes uncon- 
scious, becomes insane, depends on the vicissitudes of earth 



272 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

for its own conditions, and is in every way a developing, 
ripening and dying existence. 

7. The psychic mind is known to be indestructible, and 
for that reason it must be immortal. The psychic body 
keeps pace with the endowments of the psychic mind; just 
as the physical body and mind are mortal and vulnerable. 

These seven propositions are to be given thought in the 
same manner as the twenty-four propositions of chapter one 
have been employed in recent pages of this book. They 
should be studied until their full meaning is comprehended. 
To read them a few times will not bring the results needed. 

You can stimulate any faculty and any power. 

It has already been stated that the physical mind never 
begins to grow until it is stimulated ; and wise parents under- 
stand the importance of surrounding infants with matters 
that interest them, including an abundance of playthings 
suited to their age. Stupid brains are sure to follow the 
habit of allowing children to be left much to themselves 
with nothing to interest them. This shows merely the 
principle involved. It applies to every faculty connected 
with man. 

Everything that lives responds to influences that stimulate 
it. 

An idle body never develops. If you lie in bed for a few 
weeks your strength will have gone from muscles and bones. 

The most important part of man is the psychic body, and 
it is very little known because it is very little used. Hu- 
manity has been compelled to face three conditions ever 
since it came upon the earth, and they may be briefly re- 
ferred to as follows: 

A. — It has pursued the life of the physical body and 
mind, and so lived and died. 

B. — Or it has simulated the life of the psychic body and 
mind at the expense of the physical body and mind, and so 
died. 



COMPOSITE LIFE . 273 

C. — Or it has sustained the inter-relationship of the four 
great sides of existence, and so lived well in this world and 
passed on to immortality. 

From these propositions it appears that the psychic life 
in the physical body is but the fore-taste of its true life here- 
after. It does not and cannot take on perfection here. The 
four sides of man are : 

First, a physical body. 

Second, a physical mind. 

Third, a psychic mind. 

Fourth, a psychic body. 

These are stated in the order of their development. The 
body makes the mind possible in the physical estates; while 
the psychic mind is the guiding power out of which the 
psychic body takes its life. 

The common condition is that which employs only the 
physical body and mind. It is amazing to think of the great 
proportions of human beings that get nothing more out of 
living. The past ages have teemed with them. We see 
them all about us now. 

What is physical existence? 

It is that which feeds the body, clothes it, finds shelter 
for it and provides entertainment for the mind within it; 
or else does these things in some degree. The very poor 
man may have less food than he needs; the very rich may 
have more. One is weak, the other sick. The very poor 
man may be badly or scantily clothed ; the very rich may be 
sumptuously dressed. Both suffer from exposure caused by 
the extremes. The very poor man may dwell in a rain- 
soaked hovel; the very rich in a mansion. One gets the 
fresh air, the other is sepulchred. One may go out into the 
green field or find employment amid the elements ; the other 
hangs pictures on his walls, displaying the scenes of nature, 
and so enjoys them in their absence. 

A man is said to succeed in life if he is able to support 
himself and his family in abundance, and leave some of his 



274 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

wealth to his heirs. A man is said to fail in life if he is 
not able to support himself and those who are dependent on 
him. Whether in business, in the professions, or in art, if 
there is not substantial reward in money, life is put down as 
a failure. 

But what is the use of living if the results are no more 
than to sustain the body, to feed, clothe and house it, and 
furnish entertainment for the mind? It is the physical body 
that has grown up out of the earth and that goes down into 
it when death comes; and the journey is made in a circle. 
You go forth to victory, and bring back to your starting 
place nothing more than the body you took with you when 
you ventured out. This is not victory. The goal of life 
is not the soil from which you sprang. 

Yet all about you are men and women whose one object 
of the day from rising to retiring is to take care of the body, 
to feed it, to clothe it, to shelter it, and to give its mind some 
entertainment. If they have religious inclinations, they give 
them no scope and no growth. Their devotions are routine 
and perfunctory. But most of them have not even the pri- 
mary instincts of religion. They are physical in body and in 
mind. 

They have but one end, and that is to return to the 
physical fund from which they came. 

On the other hand there are persons whose psychic na- 
tures have been approached and made to overload the physical 
mind with an unnatural taint. They seclude themselves 
wholly from the physical, immure themselves, become mor- 
bidly devotional, have no faith in the flesh, and deny them- 
selves the glories of earth. Heaven has no place and no 
use for them ; for man's first duty in the flesh is to exalt the 
earth in which he dwells, and to build his heaven in minia- 
ture out of the wreckage of human failure. 



275 



CHAPTER XLII. 
RECOGNITION. 

i 




O THINKING PERSON can fail to notice 
'the change that sometimes comes over the man 
'or woman whose psychic nature has been 
touched. Many explanations have been given 
of the real process whereby such change has 
come about. The result of a close investiga- 
tion of the matter has been a better under- 
standing of the psychic side of humanity; and the conclu- 
sions are grouped in three classes: 

1. The change has been fixed and permanent in a small 
number of instances as compared with the whole number 
involved. 

2. The change has been effective for some length of time 
and then has ceased. 

3. The change has been fleeting and short-lived. 

The starting principle is this: All men and women are 
physical unless something happens to cause them to change 
to their psychic nature. They are born physical because 
they come up out of the earth which is physical. They eat, 
sleep, work, think, find entertainment, suffer and die. If 
nothing were to occur to awaken some other nature, they 
would never know they were anything but physical. 

The most common power that affects them and stimu- 
lates their desire to know something of a different nature 
than that which they see is only physical, is the death of 
loved ones. It cannot be said that death is created for this 
purpose, for it has other meanings; but it in reality brings 



276 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

many a hardened heart face to face with the psychic nature 
within. 

Here is an example: A man who had acquired some 
wealth in the saloon business, had a child whose life was 
dearer to him than all else in the world. He saw the little 
girl develop from the tender years of infancy to the period 
of youth, and he looked upon the business which brought 
him his income. He often thought of the sadness and gloom 
that would fill his life if she were to die; and little by little 
he was drawn into unconscious wishing that she might be 
spared to him for a long lifetime. From wishing he passed 
into praying, and repeated every night the simple prayer 
that his mother had taught him when he used to kneel at 
her side; adding the earnest hope that his little girl would 
live many years. Then he would go to his saloon the next 
morning and see the effect of his traffic on the lives of others. 
He felt that he w T as asking too much in the face of his evil 
business. He began to add other goods to sell, at the same 
time reducing his stock of liquors. Little by little he elimi- 
nated the alcoholic drinks, and entered at last fully into a 
new line of trade. His girl grew up to be a good woman, 
and he was changed permanently. 

In that case his psychic nature had been stimulated by 
his love for his daughter. It was a healthy and wholesome 
transformation ; of such a kind that it could be reasonably 
predicted of it that it would not suffer relapse. 

In another case a man who had been wholly indifferent 
to everything except the physical, lost his wife. Her death 
did not seem to affect him very deeply; but the funeral ser- 
mon was of such a character that he suffered the most in- 
tense agony during its delivery. That afternoon, returning 
from the grave, he informed the minister that he had been 
converted and intended to lead a religious life. After many 
years of trial, he has remained true to his convictions. The 
sudden awakening of his psychic nature was due to the 
influence of the powerful funeral sermon. 



RECOGNITION 277 

On the other hand we have reports that are undoubtedly 
true of many similar cases where the psychic nature has been 
just touched, and vows made of a better life, to be followed 
by a relapse into the physical condition ; the nearest ap- 
proaches to change that have ever occurred in such lives. 

In one instance a young husband was made very solemn 
and serious by the death of his wife. She knew he was 
aware of her condition, and spoke to him of her desire to 
meet him in heaven, saying that he must so live that he 
would inherit immortal life. He was deeply affected and 
assured her that he would do as she wished. During the 
funeral services he seemed stricken by the awful meaning of 
death, and for some days thereafter was very much in earnest 
in his new found hope. But little by little the impres- 
siveness of the affair passed off and he was again hardened. 
After the lapse of many years he was still hopeless ; showing 
that his psychic nature was just touched and no more. 

The mother who sees her boy laid in the grave, if she has 
held the fullness of love for him, and has found a response 
in his life for her, can never separate her life from the be- 
lief that they will meet in another world. The mother love 
is said by the biologist to be a phase of nature intended to 
protect the young in order that they may escape the many 
perils of infancy and youth. This is true of the lower ani- 
mals, but lives only while protection is actually needed. 
When the young are able to take care of themselves, the 
mother discards them. In the human species the mother 
love endures through life. It would be abnormal and even 
monstrous if any sane mother were to hate her offspring or 
wish to discard them. 

It has been said that death has opened many a psychic 
nature. Perhaps the mother love has served to accomplish 
the same end; for deeply rooted love thinks farther than 
earth. It seeks to find some reason for believing that there 
is to be an eternity of companionship after this life has ended. 

It hungers for heaven. 



278 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

It is possible that this feeling, so universal among mothers, 
has had much to do with the religious tendency of women, 
and with the fact that the feminine character averages much 
more gentle and beautiful than that of man. 

Great calamities affect the normal individual by stimulat- 
ing the psychic nature ; while the abnormal seek self-destruc- 
tion. The absence of every trace of the psychic nature 
leads logically to suicide; for the physical being, having 
nothing to live for, finds it out and hastens the event that 
will return the body to dust. 

In every century the records of the church show that 
revivals have followed public disasters, hard times, epidemics 
and calamities. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, is 
an old belief; and its solution, if true in principle, is that 
the psychic nature has been awakened by adversity, and the 
way thus opened for immortality. At that period of the 
world's history when the Christians were crucified, or 
thrown to the wild beasts, or burned alive, sincerity of de- 
votion was at its zenith. 

As the end of the first thousand years of the Christian era 
approached, the belief was universal in Europe that the 
world would come to its doom at the exact close of the 
tenth century. Few if any persons doubted this claim. 
On every hand there was preparation for the coming end. 
Then wars ceased and religion held absolute sway among 
all followers of the Christian faith, as well as millions who 
were brought into that belief. As a result the people for 
several generations felt the influence of this power. Their 
fighting was changed to the crusades, and these prevailed 
for many generations more. There can be no doubt that the 
darkness of the world was overcome by the psychic tenden- 
cies thus aroused. 

Many beautiful systems of living sprang up. 

What part fear played in the matter cannot be stated ; 
nor can it be asserted that fear is not a legitimate agency for 
stimulating the psychic nature. 



RECOGNITION 279 

In those centuries when the preaching of hell-fire drove 
millions into the church, fear was of course the chief instru- 
ment; but if it actually awakened the ps3'chic life, it served 
its purpose well. 

It has been said that the death of a loved one will often 
touch the psychic nature. On the same principle it is also 
said that the knowledge of approaching death will generally 
arouse the psychic tendency. Condemned prisoners whose 
day of execution has been fixed, are in nine cases out of ten 
easily led to profess religion; whereas the same criminals, 
left to the chance of death by conflict or in the hazard of 
their business, would face such an end with indifference. 
The slightest uncertainty shuts up all approach to their 
psychic natures. 

Certainty of punishment reduces crime. 

We recall the case of a small city of about ten thousand 
inhabitants, where an epidemic of small pox swept away 
many hundreds; and the survivors became so religious that 
several new churches were built to accommodate them. 

The greatest revivals in times of peace in this country 
occurred after the panic of the early fifties, and that of the 
early seventies. It was following the latter troublous times 
that Moody found his immense harvest of souls. 

When the twentieth century shall be drawing to a close, 
the world will probably witness the most complete religious 
and moral sweeping of the earth that has ever occurred ; 
for the rounding out of the Biblical six days of a thousand 
years each, will appall humanity. Such is the nature of man. 

The worst enemy of the church is prosperity. Good times 
will bring plenty of food, drink, clothing and shelter, as well 
as entertainment for the mind ; and this is the complete 
equipment for physical living. The comic sheet, sporting 
pages and scandal columns of the Sunday papers will just 
harmonize with the man who has eaten well, and who- has 
all the comforts of life about him. To him the psychic life 
has no attractions, and the church is a bore. 



28o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

How much sincerity is involved in these awakenings of 
the better part of man, is not so important as how long 
their effects will endure. In most cases they are in earnest; 
but as the psychic nature has not been really aroused, it 
lapses sooner or later into the dormant state where it was 
found. 

When the plan of life on earth is considered, no one can 
say in good sense that the state of fear is a psychic condi- 
tion. It may serve as the means of awakening that part of 
man ; but, like the key that opened the door, it is not the 
house within. 

Excitement during revivals has been defended as a means 
to an end. Any method that will actually wake up the psy- 
chic life and bring it into a permanent status, is justifiable. 
But the hysterics of the man whose remorse made him re- 
pentant of his murder of a friend, may not be more than an 
intensified form of emotion similar to that which attends 
passionate appeals to audiences. Colored folks shout, leap 
in the air, and fall into cataleptic fits during some of their 
revival meetings. 

Thus we see that the subject is many-sided. 

Storms at sea have occasionally converted pretty wicked 
sailors, a few of whom have held fast to their new-found 
hope; but most of them fall back to their physical conditions 
and so live and die. 

There is another way that leads to the awakening of the 
psychic life within man, and this will be considered in the 
next chapter. 



28l 




CHAPTER XLIII. 



1 THINKING ONWARD. 

1 1 



ROM EARTH the physical body was created. 
'It was physical at birth and will so remain 
unless something shall intervene to develop 
other parts of its life. Even the physical mind 
will not come into existence unless it is stimu- 
lated and aroused. This fact has been many 
times proved, as in the cases of infant prisoners 
who have been kept under close guard lest they might some 
day become contenders for the thrones of great empires. 
Lacking the stimulus to develop the mind, they have grown 
up with smooth brains and imbecile natures. The healthiest 
child that may be born, if kept wholly apart from the 
sources of knowledge, will totally lack mind. 

But if there is to be a mental side built in life, it must 
first take root in the physical body. Without the latter, it 
cannot find the temple in which to grow. 

The first step therefore in human life is the birth and 
development of the physical body. The second step is the 
coming of the mind in that body. Thus far the physical 
can go and no farther. 

But one part leads out of another. It all starts with 
earth. This basis is necessary, because earth is the first step 
in everything connected with this planet. Through the 
experiences of the physical body, the physical mind is de- 
veloped. Through the experiences of the physical mind, 
the psychic mind is developed. Through the experiences of 
the latter, the psychic life is reached. These steps are im- 
portant and should be borne clearly in mind. 



282 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

At the end of the fortieth chapter it was said that if you 
start with the study of the unseen powers that surround 
human life, and think deep enough and far enough, you will 
think clear through to God. As God is wholly psychic, this 
process is in line with the steps that follow one another in 
the development of the complete man. It is by physical 
experiences of the body that the physical mind is developed. 
It is by thinking with such faculty on themes that are be- 
yond its powers, that the psychic mind is awakened ; and 
the methods set forth in chapters thirty-nine and forty are 
absolutely sure to bring this result if they are pursued in 
the manner stated. 

The next step is easily seen. 

Having awakened the psychic mind by the process de- 
scribed, the purpose now is to stimulate the psychic life by 
going one pace farther. 

This is to be done apart from the employment of the 
usual agencies of fear, alarm, emotion or disaster. It can 
be accomplished through the use of the psychic mind, even 
taking the slight awakening that is secured under the meth- 
ods stated, as the basis for further progress. It is not sup- 
posed that these primary beginnings are to bring us into the 
full measure of the powers of psychic existence. The at- 
tempt is made here merely to stimulate the psychic mind 
and the psychic life; not to develop them into powerful 
agencies. That line of work belongs almost wholly to the 
Psychic Society, as described in the final pages of this book. 

It should be understood that the Shaftesbury Society is 
seeking to lend as much aid as can come from this work to 
every person who is taught its lessons, in the hope that 
those who cannot devote themselves to the greater society 
will gain results here and now. 

Therefore the slight progress made herein, being hardly 
more than to the threshold of the powers sought, will serve 
only to stimulate the psychic mind and the psychic life; but 
the impulse thus given by so slight a start may, in thousands 



THINKING ONWARD 283 

of cases, prove sufficient to arouse the full faculties to their 
own acquired momentum. If the rock that is poised on 
the mountain side needs only a gentle push to set it in mo- 
tion, it may roll onward down the slope to the temple that 
awaits its coming and be placed at the corner of the foun- 
dation to be honored through all time. 

Before seeking to stimulate the psychic life into a state 
that will enable you to recognize it, you should review 
very carefully the questions and your answers as written in 
chapters thirty-nine and forty. Assure yourself that you 
have taken the time to fully arouse the psychic mind by the 
method therein set forth. 

Select such times and conditions as were required in those 
chapters, and continue the work under the following plan. 
You have now the additional advantage of a quickened 
psychic mind, which is the closest step to the final result. 

We will go back to physical conditions as a means of 
starting. 

In the hour of solitude or when about to enter the first 
sleep of the night, try to grasp the meaning of the follow- 
ing propositions, all of which are primary steps in thought : 

1. There was once a time when this part of the sky, now 
occupied by the sun and its planets, was empty. 

2. Out from a distant court of the heavens, too far away 
to be seen by the largest telescope, the mass of matter 
of which the sun is made, was hurled to this part of the 
universe. 

3. From the sun thus sent to this region in space, came 
the earth and other dependencies. 

4. The earth is heavy, very heavy. A tiny spot on its 
surface contains so many millions of tons of weight that it 
can hardly be contemplated by the mind of man. The 
great canal at Panama that is to cost hundreds of millions 
of dollars and many years of labor, is so slight a scratch 
on the surface of the earth that it could not be seen with a 
Lick telescope placed upon the nearby moon. Archimedes 



284 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

once said he would move this world if he could secure a 
leverage: but the combined strength of all the horse power 
and engine power on earth to-day would not make the 
planet budge an inch. 

5. This tremendous weight came out of a distant part 
of the heavens ; was in fact sent out ; appeared in this 
region as a portion of the sun; and was thrown from that 
body. Such was the process of transportation. If Archi- 
medes could not move the world an inch with all the energy 
afforded by earth itself, how could it be transported billions 
of miles as a mass and brought to its present abode, unless 
some power mightier than the mind of man can conceive 
directed the transaction? 

6. If a mass of matter as great as this world were to be 
moved from the central courts of heaven to a place count- 
less billions of miles away, can you think of any better plan 
than to wrap that mass in living flame, hurl it out from the 
sky into its future abode, give to the flame the power to 
throw off worlds of its own, and then reduce that fire by 
cooling processes to a solid world? Any other method 
would have been dangerous even if feasible. 

7. This mass on which we dwell and from which we are 
powerless to escape, contains something more than acci- 
dental composition. Its material consists of food for all 
the kinds of life that exist here; and this is not accident. 
Its material contains stones, woods, minerals and metals 
all in wonderful diversity, variety and conditions of hard- 
ness, softness and quality, capable of being used in con- 
structing the houses needed by man ; and such a wealth of 
matter coming from the distant realms of the sky could not 
be the result of chance, accident, or blind law. Its ma- 
terial contains plants and animals from which clothing can 
be made in every conceivable manner and of every con- 
ceivable value and usefulness; a condition that could not 
possibly result from accident. Its material also contains 
special values, precious stones, gems, diamonds, gold, and 



THINKING ONWARD 285 

energies suited to the pleasure of man; as well as every aid 
to art that can be desired, and every aid to the sense of 
beauty through flowers and colors that the most exalted in- 
genuity can invent. Surely not one of these attributes 
came about by accident. 

8. Now put these two lines of thought together: (a) 
This world was sent forth into space from a remote part of 
the sky as a mass of great weight; (b) and this mass is full 
to overflowing of the needs of human life on its bosom. 

The purpose thus far of these propositions is to set in 
motion your thoughts until something shall touch them that 
will satisfy you that chance and accident have had no part 
in the unfolding of life on this globe ; but that design and 
intelligence are everywhere in evidence. As soon as that 
conclusion is fixed in your mind, the rest of the process is 
easy. 

Nothing is clearer than the power of the mind after it 
is wholly satisfied of the existence of a definite purpose in 
creation; and that man may share in that purpose. Let 
every person realize this fact. 

It is not enough to believe this. Belief is merely the 
action of the physical mind ; and we are seeking to start at 
that mind and come up into the higher faculty that is quick- 
ened by a strong conviction. We are not teaching faith, 
nor belittling its usefulness. We are not employing the 
agencies of emotion, fear, superstition, threats, alarms, dis- 
aster, suffering or other calamity. All these have had their 
day, and the best religious minds of this era look back with 
sorrow upon the fact that such methods have been most 
active in building up the church. Even at this time one de- 
nomination holds its followers through the fear that the 
world is speedily coming to an end ; a fear that, if it could 
be founded on absolute certainty, would drive every sane 
man or woman into the church. 

But we look up through the sublime trend of thoughts 
that carry the mind of man into the solid assurances that 



286 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

there is a purpose in the creation of this world, and that 
man is the central object of existence. 

It is not fear that is to bring us to heaven, but knowl- 
edge. 

The mind has too long looked downward. It has rarely 
looked up to the plan of the universe. But to-day it can 
be proved that, whereas fear, or emotion, or calamity, may 
drive the heart into a serious contemplation of the psychic 
life, only to fall back perchance to the physical again and 
be lost, on the other hand the realization of the unseen 
powers that control matter is sure to awaken to permanent 
hope the most abject physical being if once the psychic na- 
ture is fully aroused. There is more to amaze man in 
looking upward through the exalted trend of thought, than in 
looking downward through fear, emotions, superstition, ap- 
prehension, suffering and death. 

But man rarely looks upward. 

When he does he fails to turn his psychic mind to the 
wonders of thought and intelligence that must thrill him 
when understood. If he is moved at all it is only in the 
midst of material contemplation. He has but one great 
lesson to learn and that is to take advantage of the hour 
when he can empty his physical thoughts out of his chaotic 
brain, and in their place invite the deeper activities of his 
mind until the psychic life shines alone. 




287 
CHAPTER XLIV. 



1 THE TWO PICTURES. 1 

1 I 

ivivi /lvi J Ki,,i,i.i,i, l .K,.Ki-i.i,i.Ki,i.i.i.,. i^i ^iTiTiTiTiTiTi ~iTiTiTi~t~t~i"?i^ 



TEP BY STEP our course has led us on- 
,ward and upward to the very threshold of 
the life we seek to enter; and the last stage of 
progress is now at hand. It will be noted that 
the time that is most favorable to the unfold- 
ing of the psychic nature is that referred to 
under the plan of chapters thirty-nine and 
forty; and for the reason that all straggling and diverting 
thoughts of the physical brain must be avoided. It will be 
fruitless to seek results that could not possibly come to the 
world's greatest geniuses who one and all require solitude 
and concentration of thought in order to secure power of 
progress in their achievements. 

Two months should be spent in night thoughts on the 
questions of chapters thirty-nine and forty. Then a third 
month ought to be devoted to the work of chapter forty- 
three. It takes no time that is valuable for other things; 
for it employs the least period of the waking day, just as 
the mind is about to enter the lapse that follows physical 
consciousness. 

The fourth and last month of this training in the Shaftes- 
bury Society is now at hand. 

Having come into the conviction that this earth was 
thrown out of the sky in a mass of flame, and that the latter 
has sent it out from its heat in order that it might become 
cool and take on life while yet chained to the sun ; and, 
still further, having found it true that this mass of immense 
weight which is known as the earth is not an accidental col- 



288 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

lection of material, but contains everything needed for the 
life and comfort of humanity; the psychic mind sees at once 
the fact that there is a purpose in it all. 

What that purpose is, must now engage our attention. 

To start the process of investigation, let us look at some 
of the acknowledged principles involved in the plan of crea- 
tion. 

I. There is nothing to indicate that absolute generosity 
prevails in the making of this earth with its freight of hu- 
manity. 

By generosity is meant the giving of everything and the 
requiring of nothing. If you receive as a present from 
a man of wealth a great gift, and you are asked to yield 
nothing in return, that is absolute generosity. But if the 
donor requires that you use the gift in a manner which he 
deems wisest for you, then it is generous, but not fully and 
freely so; for you will be hemmed in by conditions that are 
restrictive. 

2. There are unmistakable proofs that this earth and its 
life are two-sided. 

3. As a definite purpose and intelligence can be every- 
where seen in the creation of this earth and its life, it must 
follow that the two-sided condition of existence is part of a 
fixed plan. 

4. If the Creator had been absolutely generous; that is, 
had given everything and required nothing in return ; this 
world would have been a scene of perfection. 

5. Everything physical tends to imperfection, because it 
is always disintegrating, or breaking up into change. 

6. Everything psychic tends to perfection, because it is 
indestructible. 

7. It is for this last named reason that the sway of the 
psychic nature over the physical mind and body tends always 
to heal them and drive away disease. Physical methods, 
founded on physical reasoning, are not curative or healing; 
but the predominance of the psychic mind and life will al- 



THE TWO PICTURES 289 

ways hold sickness aloof and bring healing to mind and 
body. No brain ever goes insane that is under the associate 
mastery of the psychic mind ; but the more a person studies 
spiritism and occult theories, the weaker the physical 
mind and body become; ending sooner or later in a break- 
ing up of one or both. Psychic training is a certain remedy 
for approaching insanity. But the trouble is that there are 
so many false claims as to what is psychic, and so many sys- 
tems exist to-day that are mere inventions founded on oc- 
cult superstition, that the public may grasp the venomous 
asp in the belief that it is a beauteous rose. There was never 
a period in human history when truth and right training 
were so much needed as now, while the age is entering on 
a new trend of development. For this reason there should 
be free and widespread efforts made to bring the public into 
these studies. Physical methods and physical reasoning, 
processes of reasoning in the cure of diseases and the healing 
of body and mind, have had their full opportunity; but 
they have failed in greater degree than they have been 
proved effective, for the human race is weaker and sicker 
to-day than ever before in all the history of civilization. 

The next great step is necessarily psychic; for it has no 
limits, while the physical is everywhere limited. 

8. There is a fixed purpose in the lack of absolute gener- 
osity toward humanity. Let us see what that purpose is. 
In the first place it is important that two pictures shall be 
seen and understood. 

FIRST PICTURE.— This world contains everything 
that is bad, wicked, base, mean, despicable, vile, filthy, crim- 
inal, and horrible. The human heart can be criminal and 
murderous ; it can torture, rob and kill. The most cun- 
ning and most devilish ingenuity, seeking in all the inven- 
tions of grossest cruelty and most terrible wickedness for 
exhibitions of hellish, fiendish and diabolical depravity, could 
add nothing to what the present day and all past ages con- 
tain and have contained in the life of man on earth. The 



2go THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

extreme has been reached, and there is no hell and no Satan 
that can pass below that limit. Earth is the scene of the 
very worst conditions that can be found in any part of the 
universe, for there is nothing that can fall lower than the 
debased nature that may be present in the heart of man. 

SECOND PICTURE.— This world does not contain 
everything that is good and beautiful, nor is it the scene of 
the highest happiness; but it holds the beginnings of all 
these things. Purity, refinement, sweetness, beauty, friend- 
ship, love and devotion are all here; and await the choice 
of humanity for their appearance in life. There is no noble 
quality of mind or heart that is not possible in some degree 
in this life. There are men and women who will not kill, 
who will not falsify, who will not do wrong. There are 
some who love their neighbors as themselves, who do unto 
others as they would be done by, and who live the precept 
of peace on earth and good will to men. There are loving 
and lovable hearts in this world. They are in harmony 
with the teeming goodness of nature that gives to human- 
ity the rich colorings and fragrance of flowers, the music of 
voice and instrument, the glories of the morning and even- 
ing skies, the gentleness of art, and the profuse wealth of 
pleasure that the physical mind ignores but that the psychic 
life enjoys. These are beginnings only, but they are substan- 
tial proofs of the sources from which they are sprung. 
The ladder to heaven rests on the earth. 

9. It being true that earth holds all that can be possible 
in hell, and but the beginnings of what may be possible in 
heaven, it must follow that the world in which we live is 
the lowest form of all existence in the universe, and not the 
highest. Nothing can be under it in the scale of moral or 
material life. If it contained nothing but the first picture, 
there would be the end of all things. 

10. If earth is the bottom notch of the scale of universal 
life, it must be lower than all else in creation ; and history 
seems to confirm the first part of this fact. If earth is 



THE TWO PICTURES 291 

lower, all else must be higher. Therefore there is a better 
condition beyond this world. 

11. The second picture is proof positive of the purpose 
that planned this orb and placed humanity on it. It is 
proof positive of the existence of better things somewhere 
else in the universe. All powers come to this planet 
through the agency of the sun. Flowers, music, harmony, 
beauty, sweetness, love and exalted hopes are brought to this 
world from other realms. The very fact that they come 
here, shows that they exist somewhere else. The very fact 
that they are beginnings here is proof positive that they have 
an enlarged existence in other worlds. 

12. The work of the sun is always along psychic lines, 
and the higher forms of physical life. There is nothing of 
real value in the world that is not the gift of the sun. Na- 
ture performs all her wonders by association with that great 
orb. Her fascinations are many; her marvels are constant 
miracles ; her deeds are the handiwork of God ; and not one 
of them can be separated from the influence of the sun. 
Activity and usefulness are always evident under the sway 
of light and warmth given by the center of our system in 
the sky. 

13. The work of darkness and idleness, of crime and evil, 
are physical in birth and in results. They are not the 
gifts of heaven's material agent, the sun. Their ways are 
dark and they love darkness. So gloom, superstition, oc- 
cult beliefs, mystery, fear and the whole black brood are 
the progeny of minds that hate the light. These physical 
traits are born of the earth and can never get away from 
this orb. They are doomed to remain here and be locked 
up in the frozen world when it shall have lost all its heat. 

14. Nothing evil comes to the earth. All that is evil 
here has been here for ages. What arrives now is bright 
and good. But there is a vast fund of evil already dumped 
to this orb ; which, like the dew distilled from rank waters, 
may rise pure to the sky again. It is only by alliance 



292 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

with the psychic world that man finds hope of escape from 
the doom of earth. 

15. The two pictures show the lack of absolute generos- 
ity on the part of the power that controls this world; for 
the first picture contains nothing but the ugly horrors of 
a cruel and hideous evil that haunts this earth; while the 
second picture offers hope only with a price attached. Pun- 
ishment is written in every line of life. These facts place 
upon man the burden of his own escape. 

16. Religion teaches that God is love; that He created 
humanity in His own image; and that He destroyed them 
all, excepting eight, by the flood, and many thousands after- 
wards by fire. There are to-day on this globe more than 
eight hundred millions of human beings who would murder 
their fellow beings if they could do so with impunity. The 
vast majority of all the population of the world are fiends, 
utterly and hopelessly wicked and criminal. No sane per- 
son can claim that they are the product of a God of love. 
The people who preach universal salvation claim that God 
could not create any being to be punished or eternally 
damned. The falsity of such argument begins with the un- 
warranted assumption that God is responsible for the hun- 
dreds of millions of lecherous souls that infest this earth. 
There is not one bit of proof to sustain such a claim. Uni- 
versal salvation therefore has nothing on which to rest a sin- 
gle ray of hope. Psychic telepathy tells quite a different 
story. 

17. The only means of escape from the bondage of earth 
is by developing the psychic life. It is the story told by the 
second picture which has been described earlier in this chap- 
ter. 

18. That there should be doom and punishment for those 
who cling to their physical nature when a fairer hope is 
offered them, is the only logical mode of dealing with wick- 
edness. 

19. On the other hand, the life that has developed its 



THE TWO PICTURES 293 

psychic nature and come into the second picture of earth, has 
claims on the Creator that He cannot justly ignore. To 
reject and leave to their fate all who die in the physical 
nature, is right. But to discard those who have been born 
into a new life, would be a mockery of eternal justice and 
a species of cruelty that has no parallel among the crimes of 
earth. God is just. 

20. There is a fixed dividing line between the physical 
life and the psychic life. You are either in the second pic- 
ture or out of it. If you are in that reckoning, you belong 
to the army that is moving onward, happy during the years 
of existence on this globe, and certain of immortal life be- 
yond. 

21. That which is physical perishes. That which is 
psychic is indestructible. If you die in the physical life, you 
will perish. If you die in the psychic life, you will have 
gained immortality because your indestructible nature has 
earned its release from the flesh. 

22. It is a real birth, that of the psychic life. As the 
mind is born after the body has come into the world ; and 
as the psychic nature is produced from the stimulus given 
it by the new-born mind ; so the psychic body is a new birth. 
Every step is necessary for the development of the immortal 
man. 

These propositions are offered here for the purpose of 
arousing such thoughts as will lead the mind on to the goal 
ahead. You are thinking deeper and farther all the time. 
The climax is not far away. After spending a month in 
this contemplation, your last stage will be found in the next 
chapter. 




294 



CHAPTER LXV. 
| PROOF OF IMMORTALITY. | 

IFE is so constituted that it is only a reflec- 
tion of the source of its origin. The 
strongest peculiarity of the physical mind is 
its power to store up all the impressions that 
■ have come to it during the years of early life. 
Every experience and thought makes an in- 
denture on the brain, enlarging it by infin- 
itesimally small degrees until the surface in need of more 
room becomes convoluted. The idiots and imbeciles have 
nearly smooth brains, because their mental activities have 
been small or confined to narrow limits. The wiser the 
man, and the more scope his brain has had in life, the more 
numerous will be the convolutions of his cerebrum. It is 
not size or weight, but the number of corrugations that indi- 
cate great mental powers. 

It is surprising to note the wonderful unfolding of past 
thoughts that may occur in the human mind in after years. 
Indentures are made, and memory forgets them ; but excite- 
ment or fever will bring them to life in the most distinct 
and remarkable manner. The awful fear of instant death 
in a person who is drowning, with but a few seconds of time 
to call his own, will so excite the old indentures that ages of 
the past will travel before the mind. 

In addition to this faculty, there is the power of physical 
telepathy, which means that impressions, thoughts and feel- 
ings from the lives of other persons are constantly enter- 
ing the telepathic realm of every individual, who has no 
consciousness of this process while it is going on ; but if some 



PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 295 

change shall occur in the mental activities of that person, 
such impressions will awaken and be made clear and vivid. 
Many persons, in the desire to open up that faculty, have 
tried all the known methods of awakening it, and some with 
a degree of success. 

Now it must be learned at this stage of the work that 
nothing can come out of the mind that is not already in it. 

The brain is not creative; it is reflective. 

If the man who has a fever shall become profane and 
filthy in his ravings, he is but putting out what has been put 
in his brain. The same is true even of the subject of hyp- 
notism. You cannot incite him to commit murder unless he 
would be willing to do so in his normal condition. Sug- 
gestion arouses only what exists already in his heart or mind. 
Despite some contradictions of this assertion, it has been 
well proved and is to-day sustained in criminology, as far as 
that science relates to hypnotism. 

Women have set up as defenses the claim that they were 
hypnotized before they committed some wrong, and in the 
semi-light of knowledge on the subject, juries have been al- 
lowed to free them. But that time has passed. If the dis- 
position to commit adultery is in the heart it may be brought 
into action by suggestion under hypnotic influences. And 
the same is true of other crimes. Men ask juries to free 
them from the charge of murder on the ground that they 
were in a hypnotic sleep or condition at the time. But men 
who are thus made dangerous to the public should at least 
be placed where their propensities cannot be harmful. 

Crime may be prevented. 

Much broader in its scope is the power of the psychic 
mind to reflect conditions that exist somewhere in the uni- 
verse. It cannot feel something that has no existence any- 
where. Every impulse, mood and activity of the psychic 
mind is therefore only a reflection of a fact, the substantial 
knowledge of which cannot be acquired through any of the 
ordinary senses. 



296 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

We now stand face to face with the greatest and grandest 
law of all creation. 

It may be stated in many ways. 

You cannot get something from nothing unless you are 
a creator; and you are not. Even the demons and fright- 
ful apparitions that trouble the mind of a person in fever 
or delirium, have existence in fact. They are called crea- 
tions of the disturbed mind ; but that term is merely a popu- 
lar phrase. 

A genius who invents something that the world needs, 
is only a discoverer, not a creator. What he invented al- 
ways had lived in principle. He applied a law that God 
had created. Without the law his application would have 
been impossible. 

The sublime themes of music come like inspirations; so 
do the so-called creations of art ; so the exalted poetry of the 
world; so the architecture and structural beauty of builded 
piles; so everything that is new to the human mind; but 
they have existence somewhere beyond this world, and the 
psychic force of man has caught gleams of them in the flashes 
of a keener insight. 

While the physical body is only a reflected reproduction 
of the physical life that has gone before in the generations 
that led up to it; while the physical mind is merely the sum 
total of all that has preceded it in the same line ; it is never- 
theless true that brilliant achievements reach beyond the 
bounds of the physical and take in facts that are discoverable 
in realms beyond the earth. 

The physical is limited, and can be almost measured. 

The psychic is boundless and no human mind can con- 
template more than a flash here and there of its endless 
wonders. 

The physical body and mind are coexistent with earth. 
They are discontented in proportion as they gain wealth and 
power; always wanting something beyond what they ac- 
quire. Opulence brings them worry and cravings that 



PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 297 

weigh them down. In days of want they look forward to 
hopes of success and ask only enough to make them inde- 
pendent; but when they secure more than enough they find 
themselves more in want than ever. If overwhelming 
riches fall to their lot, then life is a burden, and killing time 
is the grossest of annoyances to them. Excitement and en- 
tertainment must be piled on more and more from day to 
day, until the nerves and mind are wrecks. This is the 
highest end of physical existence and its so-called success. 

But they win what they sought. 

They asked for wealth, and it came to them. If there 
were no wealth in the world, they would not have desired it. 

No person can hope or wish for something that is not a 
fact somewhere. If the physical mind yearns for a thing, it 
exists in the physical world. The physical mind never 
wishes something that exists in another world. 

The poor Indian wanted dogs and horses and his hunting 
outfit for his convenience in the happy world to which he 
longed to go ; showing the double nature of the savage. Im- 
mortality was desired ; but that was the gleam of his limited 
psychic nature. That it did not control psychic life was 
seen from the fact that he wanted physical things in a 
psychic world. His ideas of heaven were wholly based on 
earth, which proves that they never got farther than this 
world in their source of inspiration. He wanted a hunting 
ground and hunting equipment, with dogs and horses ; all of 
which existed. He sought nothing that was not a fact. 

No wish can live for anything that is not a fact. 

A wish is the reflection of a fact. 

If you wish for something that will amuse or entertain or 
please the physical body or mind, that something exists some- 
where in this world. No wish or hope of such a thing has 
ever passed into the human mind or heart unless, it has. re- 
flected the thing itself. Take away the latter and you 
cannot wish for it. 

You cannot hope for something that does not exist. 



298 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

Tests in many ways have been made of this law for years 
and years, and the more it is investigated the more it proves 
itself. 

In fact it is an axiom: You cannot wish for something 
that does not exist. 

It is worth while to think and study over this great prin- 
ciple which we will repeat in the following statement: 

LAW. — Every impulse, and mood and activity of the 
psychic mind is a reflection of a fact, the substantial knowl- 
edge of which cannot be acquired through the ordinary 
senses. 

The physical mind wishes for physical things for its own 
use and enjoyment. It cannot include psychic things. 

The psychic mind wishes only for psychic things. The 
first and greatest of this class of hoped-for attainments is 
immortality. In other words where there is a fixed, per- 
manent and unyielding desire to pass from earth when death 
comes and to live again, such desire is proof positive of the 
existence of the very state that is sought. You cannot wish 
for something that does not exist. Life in a world beyond 
this earth could not possibly have any attractions if such life 
were not a fact ; the whole psychic nature would be dead to 
it, if in fact there could be such a nature in the absence of 
such a world. 

A man of great learning and research wrote a book on 
the one theme of the existence of the psychic mind; and, 
having proved that by abundant evidence, thereupon drew 
the conclusion that it proved immortality. He went a long 
way toward establishing the law that the psychic mind 
was given life because such life was to be its reward. If 
a body that is of earth, lives and dies in earth, its goal is 
nothing but the earth. But if a life that is of a nature be- 
yond the limits of earth, is found within the highest organism 
that dwells in this world, the conclusion seems inevitable 
that it is developing here for hereafter. 

But we are not going so far as that in our position now. 



PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 299 

There can be no dispute of the law that every psychic 
mood, impulse, wish and activity, reflects a fact that exists in 
some part of the universe beyond the earth. 

A wish for immortality cannot come to man unless there is 
such a state possible for him. Hope is stronger than a wish, 
and faith is psychic certainty. 

Do these activities of the mind exist? 

From the first records of history the one greatest yearn- 
ing of the better part of humanity has been for life beyond 
the grave; and at no time has that desire been absent. All 
peoples crave it. You may travel to the remotest parts of 
the world, and this yearning is there. In the zenith of high- 
est civilization, in the valley of depression, in the ranks of the 
obscure, in the uplands of progress or the stagnant fields of 
ignorance, there is something always knocking at the hum- 
blest heart and the grandest, asking admission for light on 
the hope of immortality. 

These thoughts bring us close to the goal sought in our 
present work. 

It is not intended that training shall be employed in the 
study of this book; the most that can be sought is the awak- 
ening of the psychic mind and life. Just some stimulus that 
will rouse it into action. Just a step to the threshold of the 
realm whose wide fields are brought into full view through 
the aid of the study and practice of psychic telepathy. All 
that is beyond us. But here and now we can take such a 
step as will in countless cases serve to bring the mind and 
life naturally into its better state. 

The twenty-two propositions and the two pictures of chap- 
ter forty-four are to be given the full power of psychic 
thought after the two months have been spent under the 
plan of chapters thirty-nine and forty, and another month in 
the night thoughts of chapter forty-three. Be faithful and 
earnest in that part of the study. 

In entering on the fourth month of stimulus to the 
psychic mind, under chapter forty-four, try to absorb each 



300 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

night at the moment of falling asleep as few of the proposi- 
tions as possible. Remember that the psychic mind is most 
alert and keen when the physical mind is emptied of phys- 
ical thoughts. This is the most important aid to success. 
It is the universal rule of great inventors, composers and 
geniuses; it always has been and always will be; for it is a 
fixed law of life. 

If you do not understand this law, you should devote 
yourself to its analysis until you realize its immense value. 
It is a self-evident truth. 

In such periods seek to absorb the meaning of the twenty- 
two propositions of chapter forty-four. One or two each 
night will suffice, until more light comes to you. Little by 
little you will find your psychic nature awakened, aroused 
and made clear in its powers to see beyond the limits of 
earth. 

The propositions stated are presented solely to set you to 
thinking along psychic lines. Whether you find them agree- 
ing with your convictions or not, is immaterial ; for the truth 
will come sooner or later and you will then know it as it is, 
in all its wondrous glories. 

Finally you will come face to face with the grandest of 
all laws, which is given in this chapter. 

The steps thus far taken are all practical. They are the 
opposite of the usual method of seeking to excite the higher 
longings by fear, threats, alarms, emotions and awful fore- 
bodings. 

Here the line of development is taken on the upland 
course where light shines all the time. Nothing occult or 
mysterious is given place. The true psychic mind loves the 
light. It rejoices in the high planes from which it can 
overlook the black valleys below. It does not, like the 
seance, need the darkness in order to move the forces of 
hidden life into action ; where, if someone turns on the light, 
the whole thing is spoiled. Too long has the brain of man 
been made the tool of shadows. 



PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 301 

Everything that the Shaftesbury Society teaches is open, 
sensible and eminently practical. 

The only appearance of the use of darkness is in that mo- 
ment when the physical mind is ready to empty itself of 
physical thoughts ; and we will show that darkness is not by 
any means essential. The law involved is plain and easily 
understood. The genius is the user of psychic thoughts; 
and he must invite them. If he can in the broad light of 
day throw out of his mind, as some can, all such things as 
are physical, he is then free to move in his grander work. 
Great orators have succeeded in such uses of the psychic 
powers. Painters such as Angelo, Titians and others have 
been wide awake in their wonderful achievements. So have 
writers, poets and inventors. 

But even all of them do their best planning and are most 
easily inspired when left to themselves, day or night. Great 
men toil in the night, simply because they cannot be dis- 
turbed so easily as in the day. 

It is well known that there are a few, but a very few, 
clairvoyants and mediums who are honest and genuine. 
They are of no use to themselves or to others until they close 
out all physical thoughts ; and thus they enter into hypnotic 
sleep in order to empty the mind. 

In the study of physical telepathy, the first great end 
sought is to empty the physical mind ; not in hypnotic sleep 
or trance states, but openly and quickly. The man or 
woman who can learn to do that by the day methods which 
are to be made public under the auspices of the Great 
Psychic Society, will surely succeed in catching the thoughts 
and purposes of other minds, and almost as easily as if they 
were openly written or spoken. But that system belongs 
to a greater work than this, which is now in press. 

It is necessary, therefore, to be able to throw out all 
thoughts at will; but it requires the most scientific training 
to do so. Then the gain is made along the lines of physical 
telepathy. 



3 02 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

But the psychic nature, while not seeking the cover of 
the dark, is most keen when alone; and to the majority of 
men and women this time of seclusion is at night ; for no one 
is supposed to interrupt the attempts to fall asleep. 

We know of thousands of cases where, in the secluded 
walk in the summer garden, in the woodland, by the running 
brooks, in flower paths, in the fields, or wherever God and 
Nature are, the psychic life has been born and grown to its 
full measure. To be sometimes alone, is the secret. 

The effectiveness of the present plan is that it accom- 
plishes real results of a higher nature by the open method 
of psychic study and practice. Heretofore all systems have 
dealt with the occult, and much harm has been done mind 
and body thereby. Such a plan is the closed method ; as 
also is the use of hypnotism, seances, trances, spiritism and 
other abnormal practices. 

We teach that it is not necessary to go into any occult 
condition in order to gain psychic knowledge. We also 
teach that the gains are very little and almost worthless by 
the closed or occult method; while they are grand and 
mighty in every way by the open method. 

Thus far this work has proceeded by strictly logical and 
scientific steps to its climax, the proof of immortality. Let 
us assume for a moment that this is all the proof to be had ; 
it is certainly sufficient; not as found merely from a casual 
reading of the statements herein made, but by that powerful 
grasp which the use of the four months' course of this di- 
vision will afford. 

Certainty will be reached by every mind that devotes itself 
to this study and practice. 

More than this, and better still, all that is thus proved 
is sustained by the clear revelations of the surpassing study 
of psychic telepathy. 



3°3 




CHAPTER XLVI. 



Ithe four corner STONES. 1 
I 1 



NDER the four months' regime the descrip- 
tion of which has just ended with the preced- 
ing chapter, the first glimpses of the psychic 
power will have been seen by the aid of the 
open method, which is the only plan that is 
useful and satisfying. It is natural, for it is 
identical with the habits of men and women 
whose attainments have made them of service to the world. 
Erratic and abnormal traits of character are of no value to 
humanity. 

As the physical body grows useful by its activities and 
experience, and in no other way, so the psychic nature is 
likewise made strong and alert. As the physical mind is de- 
veloped only by the stimulating power of use and action, so 
the psychic mind and life are brought into being by use and 
action. This is a law that has no exception in the use of 
any of the faculties. 

The four months' regime is provided for the purpose of 
employing this law of development. 

Whatever may be the opinion of it in advance of a thor- 
ough adoption of the regime, the results will speak for them- 
selves, and in a succession of surprises that will be most 
gratifying. A report from a man of high standing in the 
business world is representative of the experiences of all per- 
sons who earnestly adopt this four months' regime. A brief 
part of the report will be quoted here: " I have so many 
cares in the daytime that I do not easily fall asleep at 
night. But during the past four months I have followed 



304 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

the plan stated in your private experiment communication. 
I took up this matter because I wanted to have something 
to occupy my mind when I was trying to get asleep. It 
took no time and did not interfere with any of my duties; 
merely filling in the waiting moments. I became very much 
interested from the start. At the end of two months I was 
able to throw out of my mind all my physical thoughts, 
which were the cause of my being unable to get sleep nights. 
I could swing my mind at will to its psychic uses, though 
in limited degree only. At the end of the four months' 
course I had made still further progress, and I wish to say 
that the glimpses that I now have of psychic telepathy 
are the normal and natural unfolding of faculties that have 
remained dormant, and would, but for this method, have 
been wholly unknown to me all my life. I realize that this 
regime is not the psychic course, but is an attempt to pro- 
vide help for those who are not so situated that they can 
devote themselves to the full psychic course. I appreciate 
the generosity that provides this regime." As a result of 
years of experiments, it can be stated that the experience 
related in the foregoing report has been the same in all 
cases. Different temperaments do not seem to bring varia- 
tions of result, and this is due to the fact that the psychic 
laws themselves are always the same. 

It is true that the " normal and natural unfolding " of 
this faculty leads on and on to greater keenness of the psychic 
nature until something more than glimpses are reached. It 
does not seem to involve moral questions except insofar as 
the influences of peace in one's life and honesty of the mind 
tend always to make the progress easier, on the principle 
that restlessness and dishonesty fill the mind with physical 
activities that will not down until they are driven out for 
good. 

To make it a moral matter, outside of these two condi- 
tions, is to run off to asceticism which is a crime against 
nature. The man or woman whose psychic life is devel- 



THE FOUR CORNER STONES 305 

oped in this world, has no need of a moral code; for such 
life is part of the great world beyond. 

There are such lives all about us. 

You meet them, we meet them, and all the earth holds 
them. There has never been an age since the dawn of civ- 
ilization when some men and women did not have glimpses 
of psychic telepathy. Physical telepathy, as is well known, 
is always trying to force itself through the physical mind. 
That is a very common affair, when the countless thousands 
of experiences are seen in their great total. 

But psychic telepathy, while known to all ages, is not 
a common faculty; unless the slight glimpses that occur to 
so many persons may be regarded as important because of 
their frequency of occurrence. Physical telepathy is com- 
mon, and in fact has come hundreds of times into every 
normal mind ; sometimes manifesting itself most powerfully. 
Psychic telepathy is active only in glimpses, and very rarely 
Math power. By a series of questions asked of a group of 
men and women, we found that all of them had clear recol- 
lection of such glimpses, more or less faint, and some quite 
indistinct, but sufficient to warrant the assertion that all 
persons possess such life in a dormant state. 

In closing this volume, the statement should be made that 
remarkable success has been attained by educating the facul- 
ties through the use of magnetism, which is the source of 
telepathic power. Knowledge that comes from such ex- 
tended development, and that is beyond the limits of proof 
in this book, can be sustained only by psychic telepathy itself. 
The purpose of universal life toward humanity on this 
planet is thus learned. As a summary of the teachings of 
this book, the following requirements of a higher power in 
the life of every human being who seeks to get free from 
earth at death, and to pass on to other worlds in the enjoy- 
ment of immortality, are set forth now in order that they 
may be undersood and adopted if such is the wish of those 
who read these words: 



306 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

THE PURPOSE OF UNIVERSAL LIFE TOWARD 
HUMANITY 

AND THE 

REQUIREMENTS OF A HIGHER POWER IN 
THIS WORLD. 

FIRST. — The desire for life after death must be bom 
of itself in the human heart. 

This desire is not to be frightened in, or driven in, but 
must spring up of itself. Of course it may be suggested, 
encouraged and taught by others; but such help comes only 
in the form of unfolding the knowledge required to arouse 
an interest in the matter. 

SECOND. — Every person must become in this world 
the founder of a life out of which immortality is to have its 
beginning. 

This requirement is not liked by those who turn their 
thoughts heavenward too late. When all the physical 
pleasures have been extracted from earthly existence, when 
the faculties are dimmed and no longer bring allurements 
to the individual, when there is nothing left that interests 
and amuses, then the weary soul droops in fear of the in- 
evitable end and endeavors to make amends for a career that 
has been a failure by every standard of measurement. 

The unmistakable evidences of approaching decrepitude 
are appalling. They seem to come like the hand of fate 
beckoning the pilgrim into the darkness. He does not want 
to go ; but knows that there is no choice. He is frightened, 
alarmed, and at last touched. He has but one way to turn, 
and that is to religion. Some are stricken suddenly and 
make sorry spectacles in their frantic efforts to seek safety 
through an acquired peace of mind that may be nothing 
more than the result of self-suggestion; thinking that so 
priceless a boon as an eternity of happiness can be obtained 
by reform in the last days of a wasted life. 

Earth is the place where you must begin to build. It was 
created for this purpose. 



THE FOUR CORNER STONES 307 

The structure must have its base here ; its four corner- 
stones must be laid in this life; and the whole architectural 
plan must be formed before death. You cannot go to 
heaven in a moral balloon. 

THIRD. — Earthly duties constitute the first corner 
stone in the edifice of immortal life. 

Wholesome activities are necessary to development. 

Asceticism teaches the neglect of earthly duties. Social 
hermits are those who shut themselves up with themselves 
and do not mingle with the great tide of humanity. Re- 
ligious hermits are those who live apart from the rest of 
the world, thinking that they can better prepare themselves 
for heaven by neglecting their duties to their fellow beings 
on earth. They close the doors on this life while yet they 
have health and strength, two arms, two legs, a living body 
and an active mind. They are morally bed-ridden. 
Heaven has no place for them, and they stand no more 
chance of getting there than the pirate on the high seas. 
To neglect the many duties of the day, is the most des- 
picable crime against nature; while it is not a wrong in 
the penal code. But God made the former, and man made 
the latter. 

The use of the arms, legs, body and mind, day in and day 
out, in taking care of the temple of flesh, in helping others 
to do the same, in maintaining the home in its most whole- 
some and attractive conditions, in leading others to know and 
to love home life, in performing the necessary work to provide 
the needs and comforts of living, in bettering the house and 
its surrounding land, in acquiring knowledge, in spreading 
a taste for study, and in sharing the burdens of others as 
far as consistency will permit; these are the main duties of 
life. Business and professional affairs are useful only when 
they contribute to the foregoing purposes ; but they are, in 
the sight of a higher power, small incidents compared with 
the grander duty of making a home what its name implies, 
a heaven on earth. 



3 o8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

You must do something useful every day, no matter what 
may be its money value. All work is honorable that helps 
make a home more attractive. Instead of allowing others 
to do your work and to wait on you, do your own work and 
wait on yourself, and have a superabundance of energy for 
the benefit of others. See how many useful things you can 
do in a day, and how many useless things you can avoid. 
The best pleasure is in improvement of yourself and your 
surroundings. 

Herein you will build for eternity. 

FOURTH. — Simplicity of living constitutes the second 
corner stone in the edifice of immortal life. 

Simplicity is always the best, whether in clothing, in eat- 
ing, in home-building, in worship, in social affairs, in amuse- 
ments or in the habits of life. The complex and extrava- 
gant styles of dress and jewelry, take away many of the 
pleasures of the world, and serve only to exaggerate the 
vanity of a few. Complex methods of eating and banquet- 
ing, the inordinate hospitality of society at their dinners, 
and the wide variety of cooking, result in the sheer loss 
through waste of more food each day than is necessary to 
feed every stomach in the ranks of the world's poor. 

FIFTH. — The nature of heaven must be developed in 
the human heart; and this is the third corner stone in the 
edifice of immortal life. 

The full explanation of this requirement will be found on 
pages 216 to 221 of this book. 

SIXTH. — An intense longing to live on earth consti- 
tutes the fourth corner stone in the edifice of immortal life. 

At first thought, reasoned out by the physical brain, it 
would seem as if heaven, being so full of promise, ought to 
be gained as soon as possible, and the new career there begun 
without delay. But the psychic laws are decidedly against 
such teachings. The more light we have on the plans and 
purposes of a higher power, the clearer it appears that this 
earthly existence is necessary for the life to come. 



THE FOUR CORNER STONES 300 

Every day we live aright on this planet, we gain a stronger 
hold on the future. To live aright does not involve the 
moral question. To a psychic life there is no moral code 
and no criminal code. These were made for the physical 
body and mind. It was after the fall of man that the ten 
commandments appeared. 

The powers and beauties of this world are all suggestions 
of the coming universal life. Once, it is said, there was 
a Garden of Eden, which was a paradise. The physical 
body and mind destroyed that Eden. The psychic body and 
mind tend always to restore it. When restored it is the 
earthly type of heaven. 

It is thus clear that the longer a person lives on earth 
under the sway of these psychic powers, the more fascinat- 
ing this planet becomes, and the more intense will be the 
longing to remain here. 

The religion that teaches the neglect of the body, of the 
home, of the gardens that are possible around every house, 
of the duties of home life, and of the broadening influences 
of true education, is founded in error; and whoever preaches 
or practices it will not see heaven. 

You cannot abuse, scoff at, neglect or ignore the require- 
ments set forth herein. They are seen to be true in pro- 
portion as the keen mind, in its deepest reasoning, subjects 
them to analysis and study. More than this, you cannot go 
very far in the realms of psychic telepathy before you will 
know why they are true. Give them thought, dissect them 
as you will, view them from every point of consideration, 
and throw on them the white light of the highest wisdom; 
the more you think of them, the more you will come under 
their sway. 

Build your four corner stones now. 

Make your life on earth practical and sensible. Do not 
neglect your physical body or physical mind ; give them their 
highest usefulness; and remember that the best of earth is 
good enough for heaven. 



3io 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

I SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY. 

1 

•- HE AUTHOR has often desired a personal 
class organized for the study of the higher 




themes of life. Not a class of pupils who pay 
fees for the privilege of belonging to it, but a 
friendly association of ladies and gentlemen, 
not one of whom he may ever meet, but who 
are all alive to the importance of the great 
work that now confronts the world. 

Under the advice of powerful friends, and in accordance 
with the suggestions set forth on page 238 of this book, it is 
now proposed to organize the Shaftesbury Society. 

PURPOSES. 

The Shaftesbury Society is organized for the following 
clear cut purposes : 

1. To develop the psychic life in each member. 

2. To study immortality ivith the author. 

3. To prove the truth of the tivo sublime laws. 

These are summaries of the present work, and are stated 
as follows: 

FIRST SUBLIME LAW. 
It is impossible to wish or hope for something that does 
not exist. 

SECOND SUBLIME LAW. 

If you think deep enough and far enough you will think 
clear through to God. 

Thus in a few words the whole plan and scheme of the 
Shaftesbury Society may be read and understood. The 



SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 311 

greater a theme the fewer words will express its meaning. 
How to join the Shaftesbury Society and how to meet its 
simple obligations, will be stated in the following brief re- 
quirements : 

RULES. 

Rule i. — Any person may become a member of the 
Shaftesbury Society. While the possession of this book is 
helpful, it is not insisted upon as the basis of membership. 
Any person, after finishing the four months' course, may 
loan the book to another, and so it may continue in circu- 
lation. 

Rule 2. — There are no fees or expense of any kind aris- 
ing from membership. It is our desire to establish only a 
friendly association between the author and the ladies and 
gentlemen who join the Society. 

Rule 3. — No meetings will be held. The Society will 
exist solely by private study and reports. 

Rule 4. — Each member, in order to retain standing, 
must take the Four Months Course described in chapters 
39, 40, 43 and 44 of this book. Each month of the course 
must be taken slowly and deliberately. There should be 
careful reading of the whole book before the course begins. 
Every word should be understood. Hasty or superficial 
reading will not form the proper basis. Disturbed or inter- 
rupted reading and study are not the best. Start right and 
you will succeed. 

Rule 5. — The goal to be attained is the accomplishment 
of the three purposes set forth in the first page of this chap- 
ter. This must be secured without fail. The Four Months 
Course will develop the psychic nature. When your reports 
have come full and strong to this effect, then the deeper 
study of immortality with the author will be continued 
through the years of your membership. Each month of the 
course should be complete in its success. If interruption 
or other cause has prevented such success, prolong the 



3 i2 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

month's tests and study until you have won full victory; 
and so continue for the remaining months. Be sincere. Be 
in earnest. Be one hundred per cent in earnest. Then you 
cannot fail. 

Rule 6. — In order to join the Society you must send the 
following notice: "To the Shaftesbury Society, Box 444, 
Washington, D. C. — I have carefully read every word of 
the book of ' Unseen Powers ' and I wish to be recorded as 
a member of the Shaftesbury Society. My full name and 
address are as follows : " 

Rule 7. — When you have finished the first month of 
the course, send copies of your answers to the questions of 
chapter 39. When you have finished the second month, send 
copies of your answers to the questions in chapter 40. 
When you have finished the third month send a brief ac- 
count of the impressions made upon you by the eight proposi- 
tions of chapter 43. When you have finished the fourth 
month send a brief statement of the impressions made upon 
you of the Two Pictures and twenty-two propositions of 
chapter 44. Each of these four chapters requires not less 
than one full month of solid study and thinking, always at 
the last hour of the evening and absolutely free from inter- 
ruption. — All notices must be sent to Shaftesbury Society, 
Washington, D. C. — Personal replies will not be sent to 
members, as their number will make that impossible; but, 
after due progress, printed study lessons will appear, and all 
members will be given the light of new facts as they are 
gathered through the coming years of change. 



By the foregoing methods the psychic nature, the only 
true and the only immortal part of life, will be developed, 
will be known, and will be understood. It has long been 
dormant in every human being. With sledge-hammer blows 
it has been pounding its way to recognition, and now has 
come to make itself manifest. Woe to that man or woman 
who idly turns it away at this time ! 



SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 313 

PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 

A few facts should be understood by the public. 

1. The Ralston Company, often known as the Ralston 
Publishing Co., prints and issues the works of Shaftesbury, 
as well as other books; and attends to the business matters 
naturally arising therefrom. All orders, remittances and 
business letters should be addressed to Ralston Company, 
Washington, D. C. 

2. The Shaftesbury Society is a gratuitous affair. It 
came about by the wish of Shaftesbury to associate with 
himself a large following who should not be allowed to 
pay for the privileges offered. To use his own words, " I 
have more than ample means. I wish to be free from the 
hire of others. I decline to allow the name Shaftesbury 
to be associated with fees and costs that others must pay for 
my use." 

3. Despite the fact that the receipts from some of the 
works issued as the Sections of the Psychic Society, have 
never yet in twenty years paid the cost of preparing and 
publishing them, Shaftesbury has set in motion the organiza- 
tion referred to in chapter 47 of this book, the direct pur- 
pose of which is to make membership in the Psychic Society 
unnecessary to those who are unable to meet the cost. The 
Shaftesbury Society is, therefore, antagonistic to the Psychic 
Society's finances; as the author has, by adding all of chap- 
ters 36 to 47 of the present edition, sought to help his fol- 
lowers as much as possible and save most of them the need 
of entering the greater society. 

4. The foregoing facts are stated here to call the atten- 
tion of those of our patrons who are wealthy or at least well- 
to-do, to the necessity of supporting the Psychic Society and 
its gigantic undertakings. There is something more at stake 
than the making of money. So great a work as Universal 
Magnetism, many copies of which have been sold for fifty 
dollars each, has never paid for its preparation ; yet Shaftes- 



3 i4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

bury ordered it given away as an emolument during the 
past ten years, and nineteen copies out of every twenty dis- 
posed of have been sent out free as awards of honor. To 
make up the loss, the profits from the immense sales of an- 
other work were used in the support of the greater one. 

5. As has always been stated in advance notices and ad- 
vertisements, the book of " Unseen Powers " is the first step 
in the Great Psychic Society. Page 10 of this book also 
briefly refers to the Sections of the latter as helpful in the 
present study. If it had not been for the work accom- 
plished by the Psychic Society, the book now before you 
would not have been possible. It has other work to per- 
form, and accordingly appeals to every person of means to 
assist it. 

6. It has existed in one form or another for more than 
thirty years. It began its investigations by the study of 
magnetism, the one power that controls the universe in all 
its departments both great and small. It discovered the 
first of all laws, that " magnetism is power/' It is not only 
electric and mechanical, but pervades the realm of mind and 
matter throughout all existence. It holds the sun subject 
to the central court of heaven. It holds the planets subject 
to the sun. It carries thoughts and hopes beyond the earth 
and brings back knowledge. 

7. The discovery of the systems of magnetism that have 
so long commanded public attention, at last led to the newer 
law that " telepathy is knowledge." Thus power and 
knowledge, harnessed together, constitute the agencies that 
are being employed in the researches of the Psychic Society. 
By these powers all the marvels of the universe may be 
unfolded. There can be no limit to research and discov- 
ery. Every step is necessarily expensive. The Psychic So- 
ciety stands in need of funds. These are sought solely by 
the small fee of fifty cents a month during a special period. 
In return for that fee, values that are much more than 
equivalents are given in the form of the Sections. 



SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 315 

RULES OF THE GREAT PSYCHIC SOCIETY. 

Rule i. — Every person who possesses a copy of the book 
of " Unseen Powers " is known as a Subscriber thereto ; 
and no duties or obligations are involved thereby. 

Rule 2. — Every Subscriber who so desires may apply for 
admission into the Great Psychic Society, which consists of 
persons who are studying the higher works along these 
lines, in an extended private course of instruction and train- 
ing. 

Rule 3. — Membership in the Great Psychic Society lasts 
for ten years; the first year beginning January first, 1908; 
and the final year ending December 31, 19 1 7. 

THE FOUR ADVANCEMENTS. 

Rule 4. — There are Four Advancements in these years 
of membership. Each Advancement includes a Section of 
study-lessons.— The FIRST ADVANCEMENT is made 
when the dues for the year 1908 have been paid. — The 
SECOND ADVANCEMENT is made when the dues for 
the year 1909 have been paid.— The THIRD ADVANCE- 
MENT is made when the dues for the years 1910, 191 1 
and 19 12 have been paid.— The FOURTH ADVANCE- 
MENT is made when the dues to the end of the year 191 7 
have been paid. — The advancements must be made in their' 
order and the dues paid for each year in succession. No 
year can be omitted. 

Rule 5. — The dues are fifty cents per month. As many 
months can be paid at one time as the member wishes. Some 
have already paid the whole ten years in advance. 

EXEMPT FROM PAYMENT OF DUES. 

Rule 6. — Any person who has become a member of the 
free Shaftesbury Society under the provisions of the last 
chapter of this book, page 312, is entitled to exemption from 



316 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

dues by substituting subscriptions in place of cash. The 
method is this: Owing to the popularity of this book and 
the demand for copies, any person who is known to possess 
the book will find many applicants who wish such member 
to secure copies for them. This is a common experience in 
all parts of the civilized world to-day. Each new Sub- 
scriber procured by a Subscriber will exempt the member 
from the payment of four months' dues. In this way the 
whole ten years' dues may be quickly paid, and as rapidly 
as the member wishes. 

Rule 7.— The FOUR SECTIONS are described as 
embracing the following scope : 

FIRST SECTION.— Study-Lessons in Physical Te- 
lepathy, or the functions of the physical mind and their 
uses apart from the ordinary channels of the senses ; the 
present work having the popular title of " Thought Trans- 
ference." — Also the new edition which will be issued when 
the present edition is exhausted, adding the recently discov- 
ered methods for the cultivation of physical telepathy in all 
its branches, and the new methods now being worked out 
by tested experiments. 

SECOND SECTION.— Study-Lessons in Physical 
Magnetism and Life Powers ; the present work being known 
as the " Exercise Book of the Magnetism Club." — Also the 
new edition which will be issued when the present edition 
is exhausted, adding two hundred new departments of use 
in the personal relations of life, and a vast field of influ- 
ence never before included in any work on the subject. — 
Also any subsequent editions that may be issued. 

THIRD SECTION.— Study-Lessons in the first at- 
tempts to combine magnetism and psychic telepathy; the 
work being known as Advanced Magnetism. Under the 
power of this course, if practiced in every detail, what were 
glimpses of psychic life in the fourth grand division of 
" UNSEEN POWERS " are widened into closer knowl- 
edge. — The book is wonderful beyond all words, and it is 



SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 317 

practical, as it brings the best things of the universe into 
the every day life of its students. — It is a strictly private 
course ; the reasons being self-evident as the lessons progress. 

— Also any new editions that may be issued. 
FOURTH SECTION.— This is the greatest of all 

works. It includes Lesson-Studies in Universal Magnet- 
ism. See page 10 of the present volume, also chapter nine- 
teen for an extended description. The best words that can 
be quoted concerning this stupendous course are those just 
written to us by a great biologist: " I have read Universal 
Magnetism fifty times, not omitting a line, and I find that 
it brings the human mind closer to the secrets of the uni- 
verse than any other study possibly could except psychic 
telepathy. Universal Magnetism is so large and compre- 
hensive that reading it once is a great task, but constantly 
fascinating." — When the present edition is exhausted, it 
will be succeeded by the still greater work, now in prepara- 
tion, Psychic Telepathy. The claim is made and sustained 
that the psychic life of a person may be so developed and 
exalted that, even in the body of flesh, it can secure some 
definite knowledge of the laws of universal life. It is a 
clear leap out of the dark. 

For a brief study of the meaning of this power, see chap- 
ter twenty of the present volume. 

Rule 8. — While Rule 6 exempts certain persons from 
cash payments of dues, the reverse is made for members who 
are financially able to pay the full ten years' dues at once. 

— They will be allowed to draw on us for copies of the 
book "UNSEEN POWERS" until thirty copies have 
been so drawn. 

Rule 9. — When copies of the Book of " Unseen Pow- 
ers " are drawn by Members for new Subscribers, or when 
dues are paid by new Subscribers, the cost of sending same 
is to be paid by the Member, which is sixteen cents. — All 
Sections are to be sent at the expense of the Member. 
Transit on the First Section is thirty-two cents; on the Sec- 



3 i8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

ond Section, twenty-five cents; on the Third Section, thirty- 
five cents; and on the Fourth Section, fifty cents. This in- 
cludes guaranteed delivery, either by express or registered 
mail. 

Rule io. — Members of the Psychic Society may be as- 
sured that their names will never be made known either 
to the public or to others. For over thirty years such a 
vast organization as the Ralston Health Club has existed 
under our control, and this rule has never been broken. 

Rule ii. — It must be understood that the Third and 
Fourth Sections, and also Psychic Telepathy are personal 
and private systems that are to be used only by Members 
who receive them from us ; as their general use would work 
injury and injustice. They are to be retained as private 
in the same sense as you would treat any matter that you 
regard as private, keeping it from those from whom you 
have a right to deny access to your private affairs. 

Rule 12. — Invitations to become Subscribers to the Book 
of " Unseen Powers " will be furnished freely by Ralston 
Company, on your agreement to deliver them to others with 
some written or spoken explanation of the great importance 
of the work. Nothing is accomplished by carelessly send- 
ing or giving these invitations away. 

THE APPLICATIONS. 

No person is urged to enter the Great Psychic Society. 
A large membership is not expected, because the studies are 
very intricate, elaborate and extended ; embracing the most 
profound thought of this or any age in the history of civiliza- 
tion. 

Two APPLICATIONS are provided on the next pages. 
The first provides for the payment of the dues in yearly 
installments; the second in one installment for the ten 
years. The latter is of especial advantage to the member, 
because it at once gives possession of the entire series of the 
FOUR SECTIONS, and also allows the member to draw 
from time to time in the ten years a total of thirty copies 
of the present volume and thus receive back the full amount 
of sixty dollars; making the ten years' membership wholly 
free. 



SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 319 

THE ONE YEAR APPLICATION. 

Dated 

To Ralston Company, 

Box 444, Washington, D. C. 

I have carefully read the Rules of the Great Psychic So- 
ciety, and have decided to become a member of said Society, 
and will pay as dues the sum of six dollars a year in ad- 
vance, for the period of ten years. 

I hereby enclose the sum of six dollars as dues for the 
first year; and will be prompt in all further payments. As 
I complete each Advancement, I shall expect the Sections 
due me. 

I pledge my honor that I will not make known to any per- 
son from whom I have a right to keep my private affairs, 
the contents or any part of the contents of the systems of 
Advanced Magnetism and Universal Magnetism, in present 
or subsequent editions, or of Psychic Telepathy when pub- 
lished. 

On receipt of Certificate of Admission I will securely in- 
sert the same in the place from which this Application has 
been cut out, in order that this book may be made complete. 

[Name] 

[City or Town] 

[State] 



Fill out only one of the Applications. Draw an ink line 
through the page not used. 

Do not send a copy of the Application. Cut out at edge 
of printed matter so as to leave a strip of the page on which 
to paste your Certificate of Admission to the Great Psychic 
Society. 

If any Section is asked for at this time, add cost of send- 
ing same to you, as stated in Rule 9. 



320 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 

THE TEN YEAR APPLICATION. 

Dated 

To Ralston Company, 

Box 444, Washington, D. C. 

I have read carefully the Rules of the Great Psychic So- 
ciety, and have decided to become a Member of said Society. 
In order that I may, if I so elect, receive back full value, I 
herewith enclose all my dues for the full ten years of Mem- 
bership ; and I am to receive from time to time as I find new 
subscribers to the Book of " Unseen Powers," copies of said 
book the price of which I am to retain as my own, until I 
have received back from the thirty copies during the ten 
years the full sum of sixty dollars, thus securing for me the 
full ten years' Membership without cost except for transpor- 
tation on the books. 

I pledge my honor that I will not make known to any 
person from whom I have a right to keep my private affairs, 
the contents or any part of the contents of the systems of 
Advanced Magnetism and Universal Magnetism, in present 
or subsequent editions, or of Psychic Telepathy when pub- 
lished. 

On receipt of Certificate of Admission I will securely in- 
sert the same in the place from which this Application has 
been cut out, in order that this book may be made complete. 

[Name] 

[City or Town] 

[State] 

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